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18 Jun 2004 : Column 1126W—continued

Breastfeeding

Ms Drown: To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether a breastfeeding strategy for England will be included in the Children's National Service Framework. [178289]

Miss Melanie Johnson: The national service framework for children, young people and maternity services will set out standards for a wide range of health and social care services and the interface with education. The standards are likely to set out what support should be available to children, young people and pregnant women.

The Government encourage breastfeeding as the best form of nutrition for infants and has set an national health service priorities and planning framework target to increase breastfeeding initiation by two percentage points a year between 2003–06, focusing on women from disadvantaged groups.
 
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Chorley and South Ribble PCT

Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many people had treatment in Chorley and South Ribble Primary Care Trust in each of the age groups (a) two to 11, (b) 11 to 18, (c) 18 to 30, (d) 30 to 40, (e) 40 to 60 and (f) 60 to 70 in each of the last five years, broken down by gender. [179281]

Miss Melanie Johnson: Information is not gathered on the number of people receiving treatment.

Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much public money is earmarked for health over the next two years in Chorley. [179282]

Miss Melanie Johnson: The allocations to the Chorley and South Ribble Primary Care Trust are as follows:

	£
2004–05	181,153,000
2005–06	205,458,000

Depression (Young People)

Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many finished consultant episodes for depression in children and adolescents there were in (a) England and (b) each strategic health authority in each year since 1996; and if he will make a statement. [178480]

Dr. Ladyman: The available information is shown in the table. The National Institute for Clinical Excellence is currently developing a guideline on the identification and management of depression in children in primary care and specialist services. The guideline is scheduled to be published in 2005.
Primary diagnosis (ICD-10) F32—Depressive episode and F33—Recurrent depressive episode; Count of finished consultant episodes for age groups 0–15 and 16–17, National Health Service hospitals in England 1999–2000 to 2002–03

	0–15	16 and 17-year-olds	0–17 total
1996–97	190	315	505
1997–98	214	283	497
1998–99	212	251	463
1999–2000	227	263	490
2000–01	189	40	429
2001–02	225	239	464
2002–03	248	270	518

Notes:
Ungrossed Data
Figures have not been adjusted for shortfalls in data.
Finished Consultant Episode (FCE)
An FCE is defined as a period of admitted patient care under one consultant within one healthcare 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.
Diagnosis (Primary Diagnosis)
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.

General Practitioners

Mr. Quentin Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many general practitioners are practising in
 
18 Jun 2004 : Column 1128W
 
the NHS in Lincolnshire; and how many people were practising 10 years ago. [177036]

Miss Melanie Johnson [holding answer 10 June 2004]: The earliest available data shows that in 1994, there were 337 general medical practitioners, excluding retainers, registrars and locums, in the then Lincolnshire Health Authority.

The latest data shows that in 2003, there were 375 general medical practitioners, excluding retainers, registrars and locums, in Lincolnshire.

Hospital Capacity

Mr. Luff: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if on divert is a phrase recommended by his Department to be used by hospitals that are unable to accommodate additional patients; and how often in the last three months hospitals in the Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust have been on divert. [178438]

Dr. Ladyman: On divert is an expression used in the national health service to describe a technique used to manage variations in local demand for emergency care. NHS trusts are said to be on divert if they have agreed with their neighbouring trusts and strategic health authority that some or all of the emergency patients who would usually be taken to one of the hospitals within that trust will, for a temporary period, be taken to alternative hospitals. Information on the number of diverts at Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust during the last three months, if any, is not held centrally.

ME

Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether his Department spends money on helping ME sufferers in (a) the North West, (b) Lancashire and (c) Chorley. [179347]

Miss Melanie Johnson: The information is not collected centrally. Allocation of funding for particular treatments are matters for the local primary care trust.

Mental Illness

Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps he is taking to educate the public about mental illnesses to tackle the stigma associated with these illnesses. [178144]

Ms Rosie Winterton [holding answer 15 June 2004]: The National Institute for Mental Health in England (NIMHE) is about to publish a new five-year strategic plan to tackle stigma and discrimination on mental health grounds. The plan will be launched shortly and will build on the foundation of the Department's "Mind out for mental health" campaign and key recommendations of a scoping review commissioned by NIMHE of what works in anti stigma and discrimination. In line with the evidence, the programme will target key audiences and be underpinned by people affected by mental health problems being at the heart of all work. The brand and first resources and projects will be formally launched on World Mental Health Day, 10 October 2004.
 
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This work will support the implementation of the social exclusion unit's action plan on social exclusion and mental health that was launched on 14 June.

MRSA

Miss Widdecombe: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans he has to compensate victims of MRSA in NHS hospitals. [178106]

Miss Melanie Johnson: We have no plans to award compensation to patients with methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in national health service trusts.

NHS Direct

Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many calls have been made to NHS Direct in each month since November 2001. [178455]

Ms Rosie Winterton: The number of calls made to NHS Direct in each month since November 2001 are shown in the table.
Number of calls answered by NHS Direct since November 2001

	Calls answered
November 2001	415,845
December 2001	513,741
January 2002	518,375
February 2002	459,305
March 2002	500,547
April 2002	471,551
May 2002	478,767
June 2002	485,061
July 2002	479,096
August 2002	485,296
September 2002	420,017
October 2002	488,856
November 2002	475,026
December 2002	570,227
January 2003	547,872
February 2003	509,293
March 2003	575,946
April 2003	579,994
May 2003	552,749
June 2003	523,997
July 2003	532,447
August 2003	520,148
September 2003	476,102
October 2003	511,835
November 2003	545,826
December 2003	570,349
January 2004	548,523
February 2004	506,112
March 2004	542,014
April 2004	544,879
May 2004	554,454

Source:
NHS Direct health intelligence unit.

Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list the 10 most common reasons for calls to NHS Direct over the last year. [178479]

Ms Rosie Winterton: Information on the most common reasons for calling NHS Direct has only been collected nationally by the NHS Direct health intelligence unit since January 2004. The 10 most common reasons for calls to NHS Direct from January 2004 to March 2004 are shown in the table.
 
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10 most common reasons for calls to NHS Direct, January 2004 to March 2004

Algorithm	Percentage of overall
Abdominal Pain	4.4
Chest Pain	2.3
Headache	2.3
Toothache	2.2
Rash Toddler (Age 1–4 years)	2.1
Fever Toddler (Age 1–4 years)	1.9
Sore Throat	1.9
Ingestion Toxic	1.8
Diarrhoea	1.7
Vomiting	1.7

Source:
NHS Direct health intelligence unit.

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