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11 Jul 2005 : Column 715W—continued
Ambulance Service
Sandra Gidley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health which ambulance trusts have trained their staff in the use of clot-busting drugs. [9790]
Mr. Byrne: 28 ambulance service trusts have trained their paramedics in the use of clot-busting or thrombolytic drugs. These are:
London Ambulance Service is involved in piloting primary angioplasty services, an alternative treatment for heart attack requiring a similar level of skill and training by paramedics.
Greater Manchester Ambulance Service is using a fast track scheme for all patients thought to be suffering from heart attack to ensure rapid transfer to hospital for these patients. South Yorkshire Ambulance Service is piloting a similar scheme to Greater Manchester.
Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many ambulances are on call in Lancashire (a) on weekdays, (b) at weekends, (c) between 10 pm and 6am during the week, (d) between 10 pm and 6 am on (i) Friday, (ii) Saturday and (iii) Sunday nights; and how many are stationed in Chorley constituency. [9618]
Mr. Byrne: This information is not available centrally and can be obtained from the Lancashire Ambulance Service National Health Service Trust.
Anti-psychotic Drugs
Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many adverse reaction reports were received through the yellow card reporting system for (a) all anti-psychotic drugs, (b) traditional anti-psychotic drugs and (c) atypical anti-psychotic drugs in each of the last five years; and how many prescriptions there were for each type of drug in each year. [6659]
Jane Kennedy: Table 1 shows the total number of suspected adverse drug reaction (ADR) reports received via the yellow card scheme from 1 January to 31 December for each of the last five years, for all anti-psychotic drugs, traditional anti-psychotics and atypical anti-psychotics.
Notes:
1.The sum of reports for traditional and atypical anti-psychotics do not equal the number of reports for all anti-psychotics because, although each report refers to one patient, some reports have more than one suspected anti-psychotic drug as the patient is taking several drugs.
2.It is important to note that a report of an adverse drug reaction does not necessarily mean that it was caused by the drug. Many factors have to be taken into account in assessing causal relationships, including the possibility that the timing of the suspected reaction may be coincidental with the patient taking the drug, the possible contribution of concomitant medication and the underlying disease.
Table 2 shows the total number of prescriptions for all anti-psychotic drugs, traditional anti-psychotics and atypical anti-psychotics over the last five years supplied by the Prescription Pricing Authority (PPA).
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Note:
The data does not cover drugs dispensed in hospitals, including mental health trusts, or private prescriptions. Anti-psychotics are commonly dispensed within hospital pharmacies.
Breastfeeding
Mr. Kidney: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what budget provision she has made in her Department for supporting breastfeeding in (a) the 2005–06 financial year and (b) the 2006–07 financial year. [1319]
Caroline Flint: The Government are committed to increasing support for breastfeeding and has identified approximately £2 million for activities related to Healthy Start" and breastfeeding, including national breastfeeding awareness week and a new national breastfeeding helpline. The five yearly national infant feeding survey to be conducted later this year will be funded separately. Primary care trusts are responsible for funding local breastfeeding support. The funding for financial year 2006–07 has yet to be agreed.
Cardiac Care (Southend)
Mr. Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many trained medical (a) doctors and (b) nurses specialising in cardiac care there are in Southend hospitals. [9921]
Ms Rosie Winterton: There are eight cardiologists at Southend Hospital National Health Service Trust.
The number of cardiac care nurses is not held centrally. However, as at September 2004, which are the latest figures available, there were 1,119 qualified nurses at Southend Hospital.
Mr. Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many cardiac-related emergency cases have beentreated in hospitals in Southend in each year since 1997. [9922]
Ms Rosie Winterton: The number of emergency, finished admission episodes of cardiac care in Southend Hospital National Health Service Trust and, as it was known prior to 1998–99, Southend Health Care NHS Trust, is shown in the table.
| Finished admission episodes | |
|---|---|
| 1997–98 | 87 |
| 1998–99 | 124 |
| 1999–2000 | 210 |
| 2000–01 | 232 |
| 2001–02 | 247 |
| 2002–03 | 269 |
| 2003–04 | 254 |
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.Figures have not been adjusted for shortfalls in data, that is, the data are ungrossed.
3.The main operation is the first recorded operation in the hospital episode statistics (HES) data set and is usually the most resource intensive procedure performed during the episode. It is appropriate to use main operation when looking at admission details, eg time waited, but the figures for all operations count of episodes" give a more complete count of episodes with an operation.
Source:
HES: Health and Social Care Information Centre.
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Clostridium Difficile
Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps are being taken to prevent the spread of Clostridium difficile in hospitals in England. [8399]
Jane Kennedy: Our programme to control healthcare associated infection in England, including those due to Clostridium difficile, is set out in the Department's publications, Winning Ways: Working together to reduce Healthcare Associated Infection in England" (December 2003) and Towards cleaner hospitals and lower rates of infection" (July 2004). Specific measures will include incorporating high standard infection control procedures; appropriate antibiotic prescribing; and appropriate contingency, for example, appropriate disinfection or isolation, if an outbreak occurs.
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