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Mesothelioma
Mr. Battle: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what Government funding has been provided for research into mesothelioma in the last 10 years; and what funding is available over the next five. [192681]
Miss Melanie Johnson: The NHS Plan announced that the Department would provide an additional £20 million per year to establish a national cancer research network. The National Cancer Research Network (NCRN) and the National Translational Cancer Research Network were established as a result. The NCRN is currently providing national health service infrastructure support for four mesothelioma studies. These are:
the MS01 trial (jointly funded by cancer charities, the British Thoracic Society and a pharmaceutical company)—a trial of chemotherapy for patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma;
the MALCS study (funded by the Health and Safety Executive)—a population based case-control study of mesothelioma and lung cancer in relation to occupation in British men and women under the age of 6O;
the MARS (Mesothelioma and Radical Surgery) study (funded by Cancer Research UK and the June Hancock Mesothelioma Research Fund). This is a pilot study to determine the feasibility and acceptability of performing a randomised trial comparing extra-pleural pneumonectomy (EPP) against no EPP surgery within the context of trimodality therapy (chemotherapy, surgery, post-operative radiotherapy);
the VATS study (funded by the BUPA Foundation)—a prospective randomised controlled trial of video-assisted thoracoscopic (VATS) cytoreductive pleurectomy compared to talc pleurodesis in patients with suspected or proven malignant mesothelioma.
No other information is available to the Department on research into mesothelioma showing Government funding support.
Out-of-Hours Services
Sandra Gidley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what recent guidance his Department has issued to primary care services with regard to out-of-hours services; and if he will make a statement. [192553]
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Ms Rosie Winterton: On 14 October, we published the Government's response to the Health Committee Report on general practitioner out-of-hours services (Cm 6352).
On the same day, we launched the "New Quality Requirements in the Delivery of Out-of-Hours Services" and commentary. These standards ensure that out-of-hours care, wherever provided, is delivered to a consistently high standard. The requirements come into force from 1 January 2005, replacing the current national quality standards, which have been in force since November 2002.
The new requirements will ensure that if patients need to access care out-of-hours, they can be confident that, wherever they live, they will receive high quality care, responsive to their needs.
Ovarian Tissue Transplantation
Mr. Sarwar: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on ovarian tissue transplantation. [190570]
Miss Melanie Johnson: The National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) published, in February 2004, a clinical guideline for the national health service on the assessment and treatment for people with fertility problems. Part 1.15 of the guideline, covering applications of cryopreservation in cancer treatment, says:
"Women preparing for medical treatment that is likely to make them infertile should be offered oocyte or embryo cryostorage as appropriate if they are well enough to undergo ovarian
- stimulation and egg collection, provided that this will not worsen their condition and provided that sufficient time is available. They should be informed that oocyte cryostorage has very limited success and that the cryopreservation of ovarian tissue is still in an early stage of development."
A recent report from the United States of America mentioned a patient who apparently has had a successful ovarian transplantation involving her sister as a donor. We note that the British Fertility Society regards this procedure as an interesting development that must be viewed as experimental, probably applicable only to an exceptionally small number of patients.
Over-30 Month Cattle Scheme
Mr. Wiggin: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what work the Food Standards Agency is conducting on the over-30 month cattle scheme safely. [189629]
Miss Melanie Johnson: The information requested is already published on the Food Standards Agency's website at http://www.food.gov.uk/news/newsarchive/2004/sep/boardupdateseptember2004.
Paediatric Services
Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many doctors there were in the NHS in England working in paediatric specialities in each year since 1992, broken down by (a) speciality and (b) grade, expressed as a (i) whole-time equivalent and (ii) headcount figure. [194243]
Mr. Hutton: The information requested is shown in the table.
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Notes:
'–' denotes zero
'0' denotes less than one, more than zero
Figures have been rounded to the nearest whole number
Source:
Department of Health medical and dental workforce census.
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