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Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what action he is taking to promote healthy eating among children. [112671]
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Ms Blears [holding answer 14 May 2003]: The Government is delivering a range of programmes and activities in line with policy commitments to promote healthy eating among children. Action includes the National School Fruit Scheme, the Food in Schools programme and the Healthy School programme. Local Five-A-Day initiatives aim to increase awareness of and access to fruit and vegetables and this will include work with children.
The welfare foods programme is being reformed to use the resources more effectively to ensure children in poverty have access to a healthy diet. There are also on-going initiatives to increase breastfeeding as breastfed babies are less likely to become obese in childhood.
Work is underway with the food industry to improve the overall balance of diet, including salt, fat and sugar in food, working with the Food Standards Agency (FSA). The FSA is funding a review of aspects of the promotion of foods to children. Details of other initiatives by the FSA to promote the uptake of a healthy balanced diet in children are set out in the its Nutrition Action Plan.
The food and health action plan will also pull together all the issues that influence what we eat and will address healthy eating at all stages of the life course. The plan will build on a comprehensive on-going programme of work already underway across Government on healthy eating.
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many people in the UK are infected with (a) Hepatitis C and (b) HIV or AIDS. [114786]
Ms Blears: The Health Protection Agency has estimated that:
There were 38,400 HIV-infected adults living in England at the end of 2001, including an estimated 11,500, 30 per cent., who were not aware they were infected.
Mr. Pope: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many officials in his Department have received honours; and how many honours are held by his officials, broken down by category of honour. [111487]
Mr. Lammy: There are 33 officials currently in the Department who have honours. The breakdown is as follows:
Number | |
---|---|
Knight | 2 |
CB | 4 |
CBE | 10 |
OBE | 7 |
MBE | 10 |
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Mr. Lloyd: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what information he has collated about the incidence of methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus; and if he will make a statement on what steps the Government is taking to tackle MRSA. [114954]
Ms Blears: Since April 2001 all acute trusts in England have had to report methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus blood stream infections. Results for the first year of this scheme (April 2001 to March 2002) were published in the Communicable Disease Report Weekly on 20 June 2002 and are available on the Public Health Laboratory Service website www.phls.co.uk/publications/cdr/PDFfiles/2002/cdr2502.pdf. These data have enabled us to introduce an MRSA improvement score into the National Health Service performance management system this year to ensure that trusts investigate their MRSA levels.
As part of implementing our strategy for combating infectious diseases "Getting Ahead of the Curve" a targeted action plan on healthcare associated infection is being developed.
Mr. Coleman: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what grants have been made by his Department to local authorities for 200304 in England broken down by local authority; and whether the grant is (a) ring fenced, (b) a specific formula grant, (c) within aggregate external finance and (d) outside aggregate external finance. [114918]
Jacqui Smith: The table shows the ring fenced and specific formula grants which have been announced by the Department of Health for 200304.
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All grants paid to local authorities by the Department of Health are within aggregate external finance except for secure accommodation (capital), children's services (capital) and improving information management.
Information on local authorities' grant allocations for access and systems capacity, carers, deferred payments, mental health, child and adult mental health service (CAMHS), performance fund, teenage pregnancy local implementation, training support, young people's substance misuse and Care Direct has been placed in the Library. In the case of mental health, CAMHS, performance fund and training support the full amount of grant available has not yet been allocated.
Allocations for preserved rights, delayed discharges, AIDS support, secure accommodation, children's services, improving information management, national training strategy and human resources development strategy grants have yet to be finalised.
The funding level for the residential allowance grant is still to be decided.
Mr. Truswell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what representations he has received regarding proposals for local authorities to undertake the commissioning of health services; and if he will make a statement. [115437]
Jacqui Smith: "Care of older people" has been identified as one of the themes for the work programme of the Innovation Forum, which brings together excellent councils and Government, to pioneer ways of delivering better public services for local communities. An initial proposal suggested reducing hospital admissions for older people through improved strategic commissioning of services by a council, on behalf of the local national health service and council. This will be taken forward in a few pilot areas as part of the work of the forum.
Paul Flynn: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) how many reports the Medicines Control Agency has received of suicides attributed to Seroxat in each of the last three years; [114707]
(3) what research he has (a) commissioned and (b) evaluated on the under-reporting to the Medicines Control Agency of problems experienced by patients prescribed Seroxat; [114709]
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(4) what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the yellow card scheme; and if he will allow patients to send their observations to the Medicines Control Agency using the yellow card scheme. [114823]
Ms Blears: The Yellow Card Scheme is recognised to be one of the best in the world in terms of the level of reporting, has a proven track record of identifying new drug safety hazards and enables the monitoring of all medicines, including Seroxat, in clinical use.
The effectiveness of the Scheme is under continuous review by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and the Committee on Safety of Medicines (CSM). From April 2003, the first phase of patient reporting of suspected adverse drug reactions (ADRs) through the Yellow Card Scheme via NHS Direct was introduced. This will enable the first hand experiences of patients to be utilised in the identification and assessment of drug safety issues.
Under-reporting of ADRs is an inherent feature of spontaneous reporting schemes. Although this means that data from the scheme have limited usefulness in terms of quantifying the frequency of an ADR, it does not detract from the ability of the scheme to identify new drug safety hazards. It has been estimated from various surveys that only 1015 per cent. of serious ADRs are reported through the Yellow Card Scheme, but the true extent of under-reporting is unknown and is likely to vary considerably between different drugs and different reactions.
The effectiveness of the Yellow Card Scheme is reviewed regularly. CSM is updated twice monthly on the progress of the Yellow Card Scheme and the impact of new initiatives. Formal reviews of the scheme are carried out and presented to CSM annually. External reviews of the Yellow Card System were carried out in the 1980's by Grahame-Smith and earlier this year by the National Audit Office as part of their Value for Money study of the Medicines Controls Agency.
The following table lists the number of reports of suspected ADRs received per year for the last three years through the Yellow Card Scheme for paroxetine (Seroxat) and the number of cases of suicide reported as suspected adverse drug reactions in association with paroxetine in this time.
Number of reports of suspected adverse reactions associated with paroxetine | Number of cases of suicide reported as suspected adverse drug reactions in association with paroxetine | |
---|---|---|
2000 | 427 | 2 |
2001 | 329 | 1 |
2002 | 320 | 5 |
It is important to note that the suspected reactions are not necessarily caused by the drug and may relate to other factors such as other illnesses or other medicines taken concurrently. In addition the reporting of suspected ADRs is influenced by the seriousness of the ADRs, their ease of recognition, the extent of use of a particular drug, and may be stimulated by promotion and publicity.
Paroxetine is one of a group of medicines called the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) which are used in the treatment of depressive illness and
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anxiety disorders. The possibility of a causal association between SSRIs and suicidal behaviour has been reviewed by the CSM on a number of occasions, most recently in 2001. CSM concluded that the current evidence is insufficient to confirm a causal association between SSRIs and suicidal behaviour and advised that the issue should be kept under review. Product information for prescribers and patients contains warnings that suicidal behaviour may increase in the early stages of treatment with any antidepressant, and that if this occurs, medical advice should be sought immediately.
The CSM has convened an expert group to look again at all available data, including reports of suspected adverse reactions from patients.
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