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14 Oct 2003 : Column 78W—continued
Student Nurses (Fees)
Mr. Boswell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether he plans to extend the present remission for student nurses from higher education tuition fees to top-up fees incurred after 2006. [129701]
Mr. Hutton: While the proposals contained in the Department for Education and Skills' White Paper include allowing universities to increase tuition fees, there is as yet no clear indication from the higher education sector of the scope or scale of any increased charges. The Department will take measures to ensure that any increase in the cost of university courses will not have an adverse impact on the supply, retention, diversity or quality of students undertaking nurse training.
Thalidomide Trust
Mr. Rooney: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what meetings he has had with the Thalidomide Trust in the last 12 months; and what advice and assistance he has offered to the Trust. [131301]
Miss Melanie Johnson: The Department has not had any meetings with the Thalidomide Trust over the past 12 months. The Government paid £5 million to the Trust in 1974 and £0.8 million in 1978, following misunderstandings about the tax treatment of the fund. In 1996, we made a further payment to the Trust of £7 million in recognition of the unique and tragic circumstances which surround the thalidomide disaster. The Department would always be happy to meet with the Trust if it so wishes.
Urology/Gastrointestinal Surgery (Children)
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on the current situation whereby a child discharged from hospital following urology and gastrointestinal surgery receives no community paediatric support. [129293]
Dr. Ladyman: The level of support each individual child receives upon discharge from hospital is a matter for local decision. This will be based upon the child's degree of dependency and will involve the hospital concerned working in close liaison with local primary health care staff and the community nursing team.
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The forthcoming national service framework for children will set standards aimed at raising the quality of the health and social care services that children receive and will include consideration of the best means to support children post-discharge from hospital.
Waiting Times
Dr. Fox: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what the (a) mean and (b) median waiting times were for (i) initial and (ii) follow-up appointments for physiotherapy care for each primary care trust for the most recent three quarters available; [131031]
- (2) what the (a) mean and (b) median waiting times were for (i) initial and (ii) follow-up appointments for (A) chiropody, (B) podiatry and (C) foot clinics for each primary care trust for the most recent three quarters available. [131036]
Mr. Hutton: This information is not collected centrally.
Peter Bottomley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make it policy that no patient referred to an NHS hospital for a hearing test should wait longer than two months. [131668]
Ms Rosie Winterton: While there are no targets for waiting times for audiology services, we are taking action to tackle the causes of longer waits as part of our programme to modernise hearing aid services in England. These are increased demand arising from public awareness of digital hearing aids and a recognised national shortage of audiologists.
The modernisation project team at the Royal National Institute for the Deaf and the action on team from the modernisation agency are working with sites to help them reduce waiting times. We are introducing a new, more streamlined patient process in modernised sites. We are looking at ways to increase the number of trained audiologists in the longer term and are encouraging partnerships between national health service trusts and high street registered hearing aid dispensers to increase capacity and make NHS hearing aids available, free of charge, from an increasing number of convenient locations.
Peter Bottomley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many patients have waited more than (a) three, (b) six and (c) 12 months for an elective finished in-year admission in (i) 1997–98 and (ii) the latest year for which figures are available. [131669]
Mr. Hutton: The number of patients who waited for more than three, six and 12 months are shown in the table.
| Total patients waited | 1997–98 | 2001–02 |
|---|---|---|
| More than 3 months | 1,149,122 | 1,169,469 |
| More than 6 months | 608,276 | 609,684 |
| More than 12 months | 185,956 | 190,158 |
Notes:
1. Count of finished in-year admission episodes.
2. Elective finished in-year admissions from waiting list and booked cases by time waited, NHS hospitals, England 1997–98 and 2001–02.3. Admissions are defined as the first period of in-patient care under one consultant within one health care provider. Please note that admissions do not represent the number of in-patients, as a person may have more than one admission within the year.4. A finished consultant episode (FCE) is defined as a period of admitted patient care under one consultant within one health care provider. Please note that the figures do not represent the number of patients, as a person may have more than one episode of care within the year.5. Grossing—figures have not (yet) been adjusted for shortfalls in data (i.e. the data are ungrossed).
Source:
Hospital Episode Statistics (HES), Department of Health.
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Walk-in Centres
Dr. Evan Harris: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what safeguards are in place to prevent patients using walk-in centres to gain access to prescription drugs without visiting or informing their GP. [128912]
Mr. Hutton: All prescribing or supply of medicines at national health service walk-in centres is undertaken by qualified independent prescribers, or within clinical protocols set by patient group directions. In addition, clinical information is normally shared with the patient's general practitioner.
Dr. Evan Harris: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what reviews he has commissioned into NHS walk-in centres and their impact on demand on other health services; and if he will place copies of the reviews in the Library. [128914]
Mr. Hutton: An independent evaluation of national health service walk-in centres was published by Bristol University in July 2002. Copies of the report have been placed in the Library.
Dr. Evan Harris: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many nurses have been employed in walk-in centres in (a) England, (b) each region and (c) each strategic health authority in each year since walk-in centres were first established. [128915]
Mr. Hutton: National health service walk-in centres are managed locally by their host primary care trust or NHS trust. Information on staff numbers is not held centrally.
Xenotransplantation
Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what factors underlay the decision of UK Xenotransplantation Interim Regulatory Authority not to publish the legal and ethics review of xenotransplantation produced by Professor McLean and Dr. Williamson; [129269]
- (2) if he will publish the useful discussion points identified by the UK Xenotransplantation Interim Regulatory Authority in their consideration of the ethics review of xenotransplantation produced by Professor McLean and Dr. Williamson; [129271]
(3) what advice his Department gave to the UK Xenotransplantation Interim Regulatory Authority regarding the legal review by Professor McLean and Dr. Williamson, with particular reference to the question of its publication. [129272]
Ms Rosie Winterton: While there are no plans to publish Professor McLean's legal and ethics review as a United Kingdom Xenotransplantation Interim
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Regulatory Authority (UKXIRA) document, UKXIRA and the Department have no objections to the review being published by the author. The Department encourages researchers to publish their findings in peer review journals and Professor McLean is contractually free to make the review and the discussions within it available to the public. As is customary, the summary of the review will be placed on the Department's research findings register (which is available on the Department's website) and the summary of the research papers will be placed on the UKXIRA website. Due to the interest shown in the review, a copy will be placed in the Library for information shortly.
Abortion
Jim Dobbin: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what plans he has to seek an amendment to the law on abortion to allow women undergoing medical abortion to self administer the prostaglandin at home; [131849]
- (2) how many abortions have been performed in the United Kingdom on the grounds of foetal handicap under the provisions of the Abortion Act 1967 (as amended); and what percentage of the total number of abortions performed under the Abortion Act 1967 (as amended) this constitutes; [131850]
(3) how many abortions have been performed in the United Kingdom in order to save the life of the mother under the provisions of the Abortion Act 1967 (as amended); and what percentage of the total number of abortions performed under the Abortion Act 1967 (as amended) this constitutes; [131851]
(4) when the Government last commissioned research on the safety of the abortion pill mifepristone. [131852]
Miss Melanie Johnson: The Government have no plans to seek an amendment to the law on abortion. All abortions in England are currently carried out under Section 1(3) of the Abortion Act which states that any treatment for the termination of pregnancy must be carried out in an NHS hospital or an approved independent sector place. There is provision under Section l(3a) for medical abortion to be carried out in an approved class of place but we have not yet determined what a "class of place" should be. No "class of place" will be approved unless we are content that a woman's safety is not at risk.
The safety of mifepristone was fully evaluated on behalf of the Government at the time of granting a marketing authorisation in 1991 by the Medicines Control Agency (MCA). The use of mifepristone is continually monitored by the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (formerly the MCA) using spontaneous adverse drug reaction reports, periodic safety reviews and all other available safety data to ensure its continued safe use. Also, there have been a number of studies and reviews of the safety of mifepristone published in the scientific literatures since 1991.
In the years 1968 to 2001 inclusive, there were 4.56 million reported abortions performed on residents of England and Wales. Of these, 63,897, or 1.4 per cent., were performed under section l(l)(d) of the Abortion Act 1967 as amended. These are cases where there was a
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substantial risk that if the child were born it would suffer from such physical or mental abnormalities as to be seriously handicapped. 39,464, or 0.9 per cent., of the total were performed under section l(l)(c) of the Abortion Act 1967 as amended. These are cases where the continuance of the pregnancy would involve risk to the life of the pregnant woman; greater than if the pregnancy were terminated.
The Abortion Act 1967 applies to England, Wales and Scotland only. Abortions performed in Scotland are a matter for the Scottish Executive.
Peter Bottomley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many abortions there have been, and what the annual percentage change has been, since 1996. [131666]
Miss Melanie Johnson: The total numbers of abortions performed on residents of England and Wales under the Abortion Act 1967 (as amended) for each year since 1996 and the annual percentage change are shown in the table.
| Total numberof abortions | Year on year percentage change | |
|---|---|---|
| 1996 | 167,916 | — |
| 1997 | 170,145 | 1.3 |
| 1998 | 177,871 | 4.5 |
| 1999 | 173,701 | -2.3 |
| 2000 | 175,542 | 1.1 |
| 2001 | 176,364 | 0.5 |
Information on abortions in Scotland are a matter for the Scottish Executive. The Abortion Act 1967 does not apply to Northern Ireland.
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