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Street Wardens

Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister if he will place in the Library the guidance issued to round two street warden schemes whose funding ended in March on how such schemes should be funded once central Government support ended. [1117]

Mr. Woolas: Copies of the guidance issued to round two street warden schemes whose funding ended in March 2005 has been placed in the Library of the House of Commons.

HEALTH

Abortion

Bob Spink: To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether the Government will implement the Science and Technology Recommendation No 77 in its report on human reproductive technologies and the law that there be a Joint Committee of both Houses set up to consider the scientific, medical and social changes in relation to abortion that have taken place since 1967. [1602]

Jane Kennedy: The Government is considering the Committee's report and will publish its response in due course.

Alzheimer's

Mr. Laurence Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what discussions she has had with doctors about the use of Reminyl, Aricept and Exelan for treating Alzheimer's disease; and if she will make a statement. [1305]

Mr. Byrne: The Department's response to the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence's consultation on its review of the 2001 appraisal of Alzheimer's drugs was informed by advice from the Department's professional adviser on mental health services for older people. No other recent discussions between ministers and doctors have taken place on this issue.

Mr. Laurence Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health which drugs are available for prescribing to treat the effects of Alzheimer's disease; and if she will make a statement. [1306]

Mr. Byrne: Four drugs are licensed for the treatment of the effects of Alzheimer's disease: rivastigmine, galantamine, donepezil and memantine.

Mr. Laurence Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether Reminyl, Aricept and Exelen are available on free prescription for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease; what plans she has to change the availability on free prescription of those drugs; and if she will make a statement. [1636]

 
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Jane Kennedy: We have no plans to extend the existing list of medical conditions that give exemption from prescription charges. The list has been reviewed on a number of occasions but no clear cut case for extending it has emerged. There is no consensus on what additional conditions might be included in any revised list of medical exemptions, or how distinctions could be drawn between one condition and another. Those Alzheimer's sufferers who are aged 60 or over are currently entitled to free prescriptions on grounds of age.

Audiology

Malcolm Bruce: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what steps are being taken to provide free hearing tests to those who need them; [926]

(2) how many people have received a digital hearing aid on the NHS. [927]

Mr. Byrne: Hearing tests have always been available free of charge for patients referred to a national health service audiology department. If a patient thinks they are hard of hearing and might need a hearing aid, they should go to their general practitioner who will either refer them to an ear nose and throat clinic or send them to the audiology department at their local hospital to have a hearing test.

Over 400,000 people have now received digital hearing aids on the NHS.

Breast Cancer

Lynne Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Health when she expects the screening of all women diagnosed with breast cancer for HER2 positivity to be routine across the NHS. [2074]

Ms Rosie Winterton: At present, Herceptin is only licensed in the United Kingdom for the treatment of advanced breast cancer, which affects around 11,000 women in England each year. We are aware that two major trials have recently indicated that Herceptin may also have an important role to play in the adjuvant treatment of early breast cancer though this is not yet a licensed indication.

There is currently no national guidance about when in the patient pathway the HER2 test, which determines an individual breast cancer patient's suitability for treatment with the drug Herceptin, should be used. Decisions are made by clinicians, based on factors such as the extent of the disease, previous treatment experience, the patient's fitness and wishes and emerging evidence.

Cervical Smears

Helen Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the average time taken for a woman to receive the results of a cervical smear test was in each health authority in the last period for which figures are available. [1130]

Ms Rosie Winterton [holding answer 26 May 2005]: The requested data are not collected centrally. We do
 
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collect the breakdown of notification of screening results within four weeks, four to six weeks and six weeks or more by strategic health authority (SHA), as shown in the table.
 
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Information about the time from the taking of a sample to the notification of the test result is currently available only where the result letter is sent by the primary care organisation.
Notification of cervical screening result 2003–04

		Percentage of results sent by primary care organisation where time from screening to notification was:
SHA	Percentage of all results sent by primary care organisation	Less then or equal to four weeks	More than four weeks up to six weeks	Six weeks or more
England	86	38	29	33
County Durham and Tees Valley	98	59	34	7
Northumberland, Tyne and Wear	76	49	31	20
Cheshire and Merseyside	99	40	37	24
Cumbria and Lancashire	98	54	25	21
Greater Manchester	96	26	26	48
North and East Yorkshire and Northern Lincolnshire	96	61	9	30
South Yorkshire	98	70	24	6
West Yorkshire	90	38	30	32
Leicestershire, Northamptonshire and Rutland	87	50	37	13
Trent	84	37	44	19
Birmingham and The Black Country	98	30	25	45
Shropshire and Staffordshire	99	48	37	15
West Midlands South	97	13	21	66
Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire	88	24	22	54
Essex	95	47	27	26
Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire	88	30	36	34
North Central London	64	25	32	43
North East London	96	36	33	31
North West London	92	11	16	73
South East London	44	47	29	25
South West London	92	27	23	49
Hampshire and Isle of Wight	75	28	43	29
Kent and Medway	88	49	39	12
Surrey and Sussex	92	38	22	40
Thames Valley	88	31	29	40
Avon, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire	68	66	19	15
Dorset and Somerset	71	37	31	32
South West Peninsula	31	21	38	41

Charing Cross and Hammersmith Hospital

Mr. Hands: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what plans there are to update facilities at Charing Cross hospital; [2098]

(2) what plans there are to update facilities at Hammersmith hospital. [2101]

Jane Kennedy: I refer the hon. Member to the reply Igave on 26 May 2005, Official Report, column 217W.

Chase Farm Hospital

Mr. Walker: To ask the Secretary of State for Healthwhat measures she is taking to reduce waiting times at Chase Farm Hospital; and if she will make a statement. [1124]

Jane Kennedy: The Government are committed to reducing waiting times for treatment. The national health service, including Barnet and Chase Farm NHS Trust, is working towards achieving a maximum six-month wait for in-patient treatment and three months for an out-patients appointment by December 2005. By 2008, no one will have to wait longer than 18 weeks from general practitioner referral to hospital treatment.

Barnet and Chase Farm Hospitals NHS Trust plans to open a new £4 million surgi-centre at the end of June 2005. This will provide treatment to 3,000 patients a year and support the trust in achieving waiting time targets.

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