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24 May 2004 : Column 1375W—continued

Dermatology

Mrs. Gillan: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what action he is taking to encourage more practice nurses to undertake dermatology training. [173926]

Mr. Hutton: This is a matter for the national health service locally. Post registration training for NHS staff is determined against local NHS priorities, through appraisal processes and training needs analyses. Training needs analyses are informed by local delivery plans and the needs of the service.

The Department published an "Action on Dermatology" good practice guide in January 2003, drawing on the experiences of 15 Action on Dermatology pilot sites. The guide suggested the development of a structure of specialist clinics, as well as a comprehensive nurse-led service.

Dr. Gibson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the impact on waiting times for secondary dermatology care is of treating actinic keratosis in secondary rather than primary care. [174126]

Mr. Hutton: The information requested is not collected centrally. No assessments have been made of the impact of waiting times based on the setting where a treatment is provided.

Doctor Vacancies

Sarah Teather: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many doctor vacancies there were in (a) North West London Hospitals NHS Trust, (b) Brent Primary Care Trust and (c) each strategic health authority in England in each year since 1997; and what the average figures for strategic health authorities in (i) London and (ii) England were in each year. [172818]

Mr. Hutton: The Department's doctor vacancy survey started in 1999. It collects all hospital and community health service three-month vacancies, excluding the house officer, senior house officer and registrar staff groups.

The Department's annual general practitioner (GP) recruitment and retention vacancy survey started in 2000. This is a count of all GP vacancies that have occurred during each year. It will include existing posts that doctors have left and also new posts created to increase the workforce, even where they were filled very quickly.

The average doctor three-month vacancy rate and number for strategic health authorities (SHAs) in London and England since 1999 has been placed in the Library. Data are provided from 2000 for North West London Hospitals National Health Service Trust. Data are not collected for the Brent Primary Care Trust (PCT) area.
 
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The number of GP vacancies in Brent PCT for the year April 2002 to March 2003, the first year data was collected at PCT level, was 16. The number of GP vacancies for each SHA since 2000 has been placed in the Library.

Drug Treatment (Manchester)

Tony Lloyd: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many people in Manchester, Central are receiving drug treatment. [174365]

Miss Melanie Johnson: In 2000–01, there were 3,652 people receiving drug treatment in Manchester. This is the latest available data. Data broken down by drug action team for 2001–02 and 2002–03 has not yet been finalised and published.

Eating Disorders

Brian Cotter: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many people are on a waiting list to receive treatment at each of the specialist eating disorders units; and what the average waiting time to receive treatment is. [172472]

Ms Rosie Winterton: Information is not available in the requested format.

The finished admission episodes, mean and median time waited in days for treatment for eating disorders on the national health service are shown in the table.
Primary diagnosis (ICD-10 F50) eating disorders. Method of admission—elective (waiting list and booked) cases. Count of finished admission episodes, mean and median time waited—NHS hospitals, England 2002–03

	Number
Mean time waited	38 days
Median time waited	8 days
Count of finished admission episodes	226

Notes:
1. A finished admission episode is the first period of in-patient care under one consultant within one healthcare 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.
2. The primary diagnosis is the first of up to 14 (seven prior to 2002–03) diagnosis fields in the hospital episodes statistics (HES) data set and provides the main reason why the patient was in hospital.
3. Figures have not been adjusted for shortfalls in data (ie the data are ungrossed).
4. Time waited statistics from HES are not the same as the published waiting list statistics. HES provides counts and time waited for all patients admitted to hospital within a given period whereas the published waiting list statistics count those waiting for treatment on a specific date and how long they have been on the waiting list. Also, HES calculates the time waited as the difference between the admission and decision to admit dates. Unlike published waiting list statistics, this is not adjusted for self-deferrals or periods of medical/social suspension.
Source:
HES, Department of Health.

Brian Cotter: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many people in the UK have been admitted as inpatients for the treatment of eating disorders in each of the last five years; and how many of these in-patients were admitted to general psychiatric wards. [172473]

Ms Rosie Winterton: Information is not available in the requested format.
 
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The number of finished admission episodes in national health service hospitals with a primary diagnosis of eating disorder in each of the last five years is shown in the table.
Finished admission episodes, NHS hospitals in England, 1998–99 to 2002–03

	Anorexia nervosa	Bulimia nervosa
1998–99	1,022	170
1999–2000	1,148	137
2000–01	1,061	136
2001–02	1,139	137
2002–03	1,156	123

Notes:
1. A finished admission episode is the first period of in-patient care under one consultant within one healthcare 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.
2. These figures do not represent all people with an eating disorder, as many do not require admission to hospital.
3. The primary diagnosis is the first of up to 14 (seven prior to 2002–03) diagnosis fields in the hospital episode statistics (HES) data set and provides the main reason why the patient was in hospital.
4. Diagnostic criteria for Anorexia nervosa is based on ICD-10 (F50.0 and F50.1); Bulimia nervosa is based on ICD-10 (F50.2 and F50.3).
5. Figures have not been adjusted for shortfalls in data (ie the data are ungrossed).
Source:
HES, Department of Health.

Brian Cotter: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many people have been diagnosed as suffering from (a) Anorexia nervosa and (b) Bulimia nervosa, in each of the last five years. [172475]

Ms Rosie Winterton: Information is not available in the requested format.

The number of finished consultant episodes in national health service hospitals with a primary diagnosis of eating disorder in each of the last five years is shown in the table.
Finished consultant episodes, NHS hospitals in England, 1998–99 to 2002–03

	Anorexia nervosa	Bulimia nervosa
1998–99	1,157	189
1999–2000	1,264	157
2000–01	1,193	151
2001–02	1,273	160
2002–03	1,315	131

Notes:
1. Finished consultant episodes—a count of the number of hospital episode statistics (HES) records submitted on behalf of English national health service hospital providers that relate to episodes of in-patient care which ended during the HES year. These figures do not represent the number of patients, as a person may have more than one episode of care within the year.
2. The primary diagnosis is the first of up to 14 (seven prior to 2002–03) diagnosis fields in the HES data set and provides the main reason why the patient was in hospital.
3. Diagnostic criteria for Anorexia nervosa is based on ICD-10 (F50.0 and F50.1); Bulimia nervosa is based on ICD-10 (F50.2 and F50.3).
4. Figures have not been adjusted for shortfalls in data (ie the data are ungrossed).
Source:
HES, Department of Health.




 
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