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Organ Donors

Mr. Flook: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many registered organ donors there were in each year since 1997, broken down by local authority area. [127775]

Ms Rosie Winterton: The chart lists the number (in thousands) of people who joined the National Health Service organ donor register between 1997 and 2002 by health region in England and Wales. The information is not available by local authority area.

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(thousands)

Region	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002
Eastern	95	78	133	119	67	93
London	84	118	115	121	78	115
North West	94	80	175	120	71	99
Northern and Yorkshire	88	81	210	126	76	117
South East	151	132	251	217	128	186
South West	106	83	154	131	87	115
Trent	77	64	141	91	61	87
West Midlands	74	57	122	92	58	77
Wales	33	30	29	51	34	40
Total	802	723	1,330	1,068	660	929

Pain Relief

Mr. Wray: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps he is taking to assist people living with persistent pain; what pain relief drugs are available; and if he will make a statement on the (a) effectiveness of such drugs and (b) problems with their side effects. [128078]

Mr. Hutton: Pain management is an important component of most patients' care. The Clinical Standards Advisory Group (CSAG) report on pain services, published in 2000, highlighted variations in access to pain services throughout the country. The report made recommendations to National Health Service acute trusts and commissioners on how pain services should be delivered in order to reduce the variations to access. It recommended that primary care trust commissioners should review local provision of pain services, looking particularly at the provision of more specialised treatments on a networked basis. In this review, account should be taken of the needs of both adults and children, and include patients with acute pain resulting from sudden illness or accident, as well as post-operative pain and chronic pain. Trusts should agree with commissioners the services that are appropriate to meet local needs.

All medicines are assessed before licensing by the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), with independent expert advice from the Committee on Safety of Medicines (CSM). A licence will not be granted unless the MHRA and the CSM are satisfied that the medicine meets appropriate standards of safety, quality and efficacy at the time of licensing.

Details of the different classes of medicines used in the treatment of persistent pain and their side effects are contained within the British National Formulary (section 4.7, page 208, BNF 45, March 2003), a copy of which has been placed in the Library.

Mr. Wray: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what funding has been made available for research into pain relieving drugs; if he will make a statement on the current status of cannabis for pain relief uses; and what progress has been made in discussions on the use of cannabis for medical purposes. [128079]

Miss Melanie Johnson: The main agency through which the Government support medical and clinical research is the Medical Research Council (MRC). The MRC is an independent body that receives its grant-in-aid from the Office of Science and Technology. The MRC is currently funding a number of projects investigating the mechanisms of pain that could

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eventually lead to the development of pain relieving drugs. Information on these projects can be found on the MRC website.

The Department of Health funds research to support policy and the delivery of effective practice in the National Health Service. Current projects include a £0.6 million study of the comparative effectiveness of topical and oral Ibuprofen for the treatment of chronic knee pain in older people and a £0.6 million study of interventions for pain relief in patients with abdominal malignancy. The Department also provides NHS support funding for research commissioned by the research councils and charities that takes place in the NHS.

A marketing authorisation has not been issued for cannabis for pain relief uses. Like any other medicinal product, cannabis can be granted a marketing authorisation for medical purposes only when supporting data have been submitted to demonstrate that the quality, safety and efficacy of the product are satisfactory for the intended use.

Parliamentary Questions

Mr. Burns: To ask the Secretary of State for Health for what reason the figures for waiting lists for in-patient treatment in individual trust areas described in his Department's Press Release 2003/0253, published on 4 July, were not used in his answer to question ref 124998, tabled by the hon. Member for West Chelmsford. [126327]

Mr. Hutton [holding answer on 17 July]: The figures for waiting lists for inpatient treatment given in my response to the hon. Member of Monday 14 July, Official Report, column 128W, are those used in the Department of Health's Press Release 2003/0253, which was published on 4 July 2003.

Patient Deaths

Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of relative levels of patient deaths among patients treated by nurses with university qualifications. [127575]

Mr. Hutton: The Department does not collect patient specific information about the precise qualifications held by staff involved with patient care.

Patient Residence Criteria

Dr. Fox: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what criteria his Department uses to decide whether a patient is ordinarily resident in the United Kingdom; and what guidance his Department has issued on this matter. [127332]

Mr. Hutton: "Ordinarily resident" is a common law concept considered by the House of Lords in 1982 in the case of R v. Barnet LBC ex parte Shah. Although the case being considered was in the context of the Education Acts, the Lords' interpretation is generally recognised as having a wider application. To be considered ordinarily resident a patient needs to be living lawfully in the United Kingdom voluntarily and for settled purposes as part of the regular order of their

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life for the time being, with an identifiable purpose for their residence here which purpose has a sufficient degree of continuity to be properly described as settled.

It is for individual national health service trusts to decide whether a particular patient is ordinarily resident and therefore entitled to the full range of NHS treatment free of charge, or is liable to pay for hospital treatment under the provisions of the National Health Service (Charges for Overseas Visitors) Regulations 1989. The Department of Health issued guidance to the NHS on this in 1988. Updated guidance was issued on 29 July 2003.

PET Scanners

Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) how many positive emission topography scanners are in use in the NHS; [127572]

(2) how many private PET scanners are in use in the UK; [127573]

(3) how many PET scanners used by the NHS have been purchased through (a) mainstream hospital trust expenditure, (b) new opportunities fund lottery funding and (c) voluntary fund raising. [127574]

Miss Melanie Johnson: There are five positron emission tomography (PET) scanners in national health service hospitals in England used for routine clinical assessments. They are situated at Guys, St. Thomas', Middlesex, Mount Vernon and Hammersmith hospitals. In addition three private facilities including a new mobile PET scanner in London are available for NHS patients.

The two scanners situated at Guys and St. Thomas' were purchased through a combination of funding from the hospital trust, the United Medical and Dental Schools and charitable funding from the unit's special trustees. The scanner at the Middlesex hospital was funded by the unit's special trustees. The scanner at Mount Vernon hospital was funded from charitable funds and the scanner at Hammersmith hospital was provided through a charitable donation.

Pre-eclampsia

Mr. Burns: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many women suffered from pre-eclampsia in the last 12 months for which figures are available. [127448]

Dr. Ladyman: The number of women who suffer from pre-eclampsia is not available. The estimated number of non-delivery episodes in hospital with a mention of pre-eclampsia (ICD Code O14) in 2001–02 is 4,500. The estimated number of deliver episodes with a mention of pre-eclampsia in 2001–02 is 9,300.

This is not the same as the number of women with pre-eclampsia as the number of delivery episodes and non-delivery episodes may overlap. For example, a woman with pre-eclampsia may have one or more episodes in hospital before her delivery and she may also have a mention of the diagnosis of pre-eclampsia during her delivery episode.

The information provided is taken from the Maternity Hospital Episode Statistics and can be found in Tables 27 and 28 of the bulletin, NHS Maternity

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Statistics, England, 2001–02. A copy is available in the Library or at Department of Health website: http://www.doh.gov.uk/public/sb0309.htm

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