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ADVOCATE-GENERAL

Freedom of Information

John Mann: To ask the Advocate-General what categories of information are available under Freedom of Information legislation that have not been provided in written parliamentary answers by her Department in the last three years. [207821]

The Advocate-General: I refer my hon. Friend to the reply given by my hon. Friend, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department for Constitutional Affairs, on 24 January 2005, Official Report, column 140W.

HEALTH

Adverse Drug Reactions

Mr. Steen: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will take steps to make it mandatory that doctors and nurses (a) ask their patients about suspected adverse drug reactions and (b) report suspected adverse drug reactions to the Medicine and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency and the Committee on Safety of Medicines. [210115]

Ms Rosie Winterton [holding answer 24 January 2005]: The yellow card scheme is the United Kingdom system for collecting and monitoring information on suspected adverse drug reactions (ADRs) and currently relies on voluntary reporting of suspected ADRs by health care professionals. The independent review of the yellow card scheme, published in May 2004 considered whether reporting of suspected ADRs by health care professionals should be made mandatory.

There is no evidence from countries where reporting of suspected adverse reactions is mandatory that rates of reporting are higher. The independent review made no recommendation about mandatory reporting, but recommended that steps should be taken to strengthen the scheme and to raise awareness among health professionals and the public. Proposals are being developed to take this forward.

Patients may now report suspected adverse drug reactions directly to the committee on safety of medicines and/or the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency. My noble Friend, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health, the Lord Warner, announced on 17 January 2005 that two pilots (paper based and electronic reporting via www.yellowcard.gov.uk) to enable direct patient reporting have been launched.

It is good clinical practice that health care professionals discuss with patients the benefits and risks of medicines including the possibility of side effects. Patient information leaflets which accompany medicines encourage patients to discuss with their health care professional any side effects they have experienced while taking their medication.

Ambulance Response Times

Mr. Brazier: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the average response time was for ambulances in
 
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the East Kent Hospitals Trust area summoned to transfer patients to acute sites for (a) paediatric and (b) obstetric patients in the latest period for which figures are available; and how many obstetric patients in the area gave birth en route to an acute site in each quarter of (i) 2003 and (ii) 2004. [210370]

Ms Rosie Winterton: The information requested is not collected centrally.

Mr. Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the average response times of ambulance crews in (a) Romford, (b) the London borough of Havering, (c) Greater London, (d) Essex and (e) England were in each of the last seven years. [210592]

Ms Rosie Winterton: This information is not collected centrally in the format requested. Data on response times for Essex and London Ambulance Services and for all ambulance services in England is shown in the table.

Data is only available from the date trusts introduced call prioritisation. Essex Ambulance Service introduced call prioritisation in 1997–98 and London Ambulance Service in 2000–01. All ambulance services in England had introduced call prioritisation by 2001–02.

Further information can be found in the statistical bulletin, Ambulance services, England: 2003–04". A copy is available in the Library and at www.publications.doh.gov.uk/public/sb0411.htm

	Essex	London	England
Percentage of Category A calls responded within eight minutes
1997–98	62.0	n/a	n/a
1998–99	61.8	n/a	n/a
1999–2000	61.8	n/a	n/a
2000–01	72.4	41.8	n/a
2001–02	78.1	57.2	70.8
2002–03	67.3	69.1	74.6
2003–04	75.7	76.0	75.7
Percentage of Category A calls responded within 14–19 minutes
1997–98	98.1	n/a	n/a
1998–99	97.7	n/a	n/a
1999–2000	97.0	n/a	n/a
2000–01	97.8	83.3	n/a
2001–02	98.3	85.7	94.1
2002–03	96.8	88.6	94.6
2003–04	98.0	89.6	93.9
Percentage of category B/C calls responded within 14–19 minutes
1997–98	97.1	n/a	n/a
1998–99	96.8	n/a	n/a
1999–2000	95.3	n/a	n/a
2000–01	95.6	79.7	n/a
2001–02	95.7	78.5	90.2
2002–03	91.9	79.2	89.6
2003–04	89.4	77.9	87.5
Percentage of urgent journeys with arrival time not more than 15 minutes late
1997–98	96.8	79.3	88.0
1998–99	95.2	69.4	84.0
1999–2000	95.8	61.0	80.5
2000–01	95.4	50.1	78.8
2001–02	93.8	48.4	78.5
2002–03	83.5	46.7	78.0
2003–04	92.6	50.0	78.1

n/a—not available





 
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Anti-psychotic Drugs

Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many prescription items were dispensed in the community in England for (a) atypical, (b) traditional and (c) all anti-psychotic drugs in each (i) health authority and (ii) primary care trust in each year since 1999, broken down by age; and what the percentage change was (A) from year to year and (B) from 1999 to the last year for which figures are available. [208120]

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

Information on the number of prescription items for atypical, traditional and all anti-psychotic drugs dispensed in the community in each strategic health authority and primary care trust in England since 2001 has been placed in the Library. Data is not available for 1999 and 2000. The information has been broken down by age groups where possible and the year-on-year percentage changes recorded.

The information does not include prescriptions dispensed in hospitals or mental health trusts. Given that a large proportion of anti-psychotic medication is dispensed in hospitals and mental health trusts, this data should not be used to compare primary care trusts' prescribing practices.

Brazilian Beef

Mr. Oaten: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what representations his Department has received on concerns about the effects on health of imported beef from Brazil. [210363]

Miss Melanie Johnson [holding answer 24 January 2005]: No representations have been received by the Department or the Food Standards Agency about the human health implications of imported beef from Brazil.

Cancelled Operations

Mr. Spring: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many patients at (a) West Suffolk Hospital NHS Trust and (b) Addenbrookes hospital had their operations cancelled at the last minute in each of the last four years. [210694]

Dr. Ladyman: The number of cancelled operations for West Suffolk Hospitals National Health Service Trust and for Addenbrookes Hospital NHS Trust, now known as Cambridge University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, are shown in the table.

Prior to 2001–02, the data was collected by health authority and is therefore not comparable.
Number of last minute cancellations of operations by trust

Trust	2001–02	2002–03	2003–04
Cambridge University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust	624	645	769
West Suffolk Hospital NHS Trust	362	184	425

 
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Cancer Treatment (Children)

Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many (a) tumour and (b) leukaemia cases in children were treated in the NHS in each of the last eight years. [210214]

Dr. Ladyman: Information on the number of finished in-year admission episodes for children (0–17) is shown in the table.

	Finished in-year admission episodes(43)
	Leukaemia	Tumour
1996–97	18,122	52,716
1997–98	19,717	54,919
1998–99	22,228	57,960
1999–2000	21,726	57,740
2000–01	22,033	57,645
2001–02	21,961	58,169
2002–03	21,558	59,428
2003–04	20,707	58,930

⁽⁴³⁾ Finished in-year admissions:
A finished in-year admission is the first period of in-patient care under one consultant within one healthcare provider, excluding admissions beginning before 1 April at the start of the datayear. Please note that admissions do not represent the number of in-patients, as a person may have more than one admission within the year.
Source:
Hospital Episode Statistics, Department of Health

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