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13 Jun 2003 : Column 1132W—continued
Medical Technologies
Dr. Desmond Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many NHS patients have received a drug eluting stent since April 2002. [118051]
Ms Blears: The Department does not currently collect data relating to the number of national health service patients who have received drug eluting stents.
Dr. Desmond Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many NHS patients have received an implantable cardioverter defibrillator since April 2002. [118052]
Ms Blears: The latest available figures, from the national pacemaker and implantable cardioverter defibrillator database, collected by the British pacing and electriophysiology group, report that 26,151 pacemakers were implanted in the United Kingdom and Ireland in 2001.
Men's Health
Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps his Department is taking to increase the accessibility of health advice and treatment for men. [118495]
Ms Blears [holding answer 12 June 2003]: It is important that men are encouraged to take their health needs seriously and to make full use of the information and treatment services offered by the national health service. Men can benefit from the advice and access to treatment that is available to the whole population. The Department, however, is seeking to make health advice and treatment available to address men's specific needs through a variety of means including the effective use of modern technologies, innovative approaches and more flexible services.
Telephone helplines and websites are playing an increasing role in providing information and advice to men. New services such as NHS walk in centres have contributed to improvements in the accessibility of advice and treatment for men. We run promotion campaigns, such as the Sex Lottery, which raises awareness of sexually transmitted diseases and includes material that targets young men in particular.
We also work in collaboration with other organisations such as Cancer Research UK with whom we have produced a self awareness leaflet on testicular cancer.
The Department works closely with Men's Health Forum, the leading organisation in this field, which has an active information and publications service. We are currently helping to fund the core activities of the Forum and we also fund it to undertake specific projects on men's health.
For the future we are undertaking research to inform policy development on access to advice and treatment for men.
Mumps Vaccine
Mrs. May: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) how many doses of mumps vaccine are allowed into the UK each day; [115220]
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- (2) how many doses of the mumps vaccine are held in the UK. [115219]
Ms Blears: Single mumps vaccines being prescribed and administered, as part of single measles, mumps and rubella vaccination programmes are unlicensed imported medicines. The number of doses of mumps vaccines allowed into the United Kingdom varies according to the number of notifications submitted per day by importers of unlicensed medicines, who are licensed by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). Every importer must notify the MHRA on each occasion they intend importing an unlicensed medicine and there is a legal restriction on the maximum quantity they may import per notification (a maximum of 25 single administrations). This applies to all imported unlicensed medicines. The MHRA received an average of 172 notifications to import unlicensed mumps vaccines per month during the first quarter of 2003. This is the number of notifications submitted to the MHRA for importation and does not necessarily relate to the number of doses actually imported. Consequently the MHRA does not have data on the actual number of doses imported or on the stocks held in the UK.
Obesity
Nick Harvey: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what measures he has to promote the prevention of obesity; and how much funding has been made available for this purpose. [114797]
Ms Blears: The Government are committed to tackling the rising trend in obesity. The Department of Health is working with other Government Departments and a range of other partners at national, regional and local levels, on programmes to improve diet and increase physical activity levels.
Action to improve diet includes the Food in Schools Programme, the Five-A-Day programme to increase fruit and vegetable consumption and work with industry to address the overall balance of diet including fat, sugar and salt, working with the Food Standards Agency (FSA). The Department of Health, Sport England and the Countryside Agency are funding local exercise action pilots (LEAP), based in the nine English regions. The Department of Health is also working with other Government Departments, such as the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) and the Department for Transport (DfT), to establish a sport and physical activity board (SPAB) to begin raising levels of mass participation for young people and adults, particularly women and the elderly.
Significant funding is also being provided to support the physical education (PE) and school sport and club links programme, which will implement the joint DfES/DCMS public service agreement target to provide two hours of high-quality PE and school sport to 70 per cent. of pupils by 2006. The New Opportunities Fund are also funding improvements to sports facilities in schools.
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
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plan will build on comprehensive on-going programmes of work already underway across Government on healthy eating.
The delivery of these policies is through a number of resources, including the Department of Health, DCMS, DfES, DfT, FSA, the New Opportunities Fund, the national health service and other stakeholders, and it is not possible to identify the specific funding being used to achieve these goals.
Ooplasmic Transfer
Jim Dobbin: To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether (a) ooplasmic transfer and (b) oocyte nucleus transfer have been licensed in the United Kingdom by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority. [117168]
Ms Blears: The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority has not issued any licenses for these procedures.
Poisonous Plants
Mr. Paul Marsden: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many accidents there were in each year since 1997 involving children coming into contact with poisonous plants in the countryside. [117581]
Ms Blears: The Department of Health does not collect information on the number of accidents involving children coming into contact with poisonous plants in the countryside.
The Department collects information on accidental injuries leading to hospital admission as an in-patient in the Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) system. Children admitted to hospital after coming into contact with poisonous plants in the countryside are included in HES; however, the codes used in HES to record cause of injury cannot identify accidents involving contact with poisonous plants as a separate group.
Prostate Cancer
Vernon Coaker: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what recent assessment he has made of research into (a) the causes and (b) the treatment of prostate cancer; and if he will make a statement. [117898]
Ms Blears: The main Government agency for research into the causes of and treatments of disease is the Medical Research Council (MRC) which receives its funding from the Department of Trade and Industry via the Office of Science and Technology.
The MRC has co-funded two prostate cancer collaboratives with the Department of Health and Cancer Research UK (CRUK). The total funding from all partners is approximately £6 million over five years. These are the ICR Prostate Cancer Collaborative, directed by Colin Cooper and the Northern Prostate Cancer Consortium, directed by David Neal.
In March 2000, we announced £1 million additional new funding for urgent research studies into prostate cancer as a mark of its concern over this disease. The NHS Plan went further by announcing that the Government would increase by £1 million the resources devoted to prostate cancer for each of the next three
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years. This means that, quality permitting, Department of Health direct funding for prostate cancer research will be:
| £ | |
|---|---|
| 2000–01 | 1,200,000 |
| 2001–02 | 2,200,000 |
| 2002–03 | 3,200,000 |
| 2003–04 | 4,200,000 |
| £ | |
|---|---|
| 1999–2000 | 200,000 |
| 1996–97 | 98,000 |
- A review of new and emerging treatments, for example, brachytherapy and cryotherapy for prostate cancer.
Prostate Cancer Studentships, funded jointly with the MRC.
Research Expenditure
Mr. Steen: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much public money was spent on research into (a) cystic fibrosis and (b) gene therapy in each of the last five years. [116929]
Ms Blears: The main Government agency for research into the causes of and treatments for disease is the Medical Research Council (MRC) which receives its funding from the Department for Trade and Industry via the Office of Science and Technology. Since 1997–98 MRC expenditure on cystic fibrosis has been as follows:
| Amount | |
|---|---|
| 1997–98 | 1.8 |
| 1998–99 | 1.9 |
| 1999–2000 | 1.8 |
| 2000–01 | 1.5 |
| 2001–02 | 1.25 |
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