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27 Feb 2006 : Column 414W—continued
Benzodiazepine
Mr. Grogan: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment she has made of the impact on rates of addiction of the reiteration of prescribing guidance for benzodiazepine contained in the Chief Medical Officer's Update 37 of January 2004. [47363]
Caroline Flint: The Department has made no formal assessment of the impact on rates of addiction since the reiteration of prescribing guidance for benzodiazepine, contained in the Chief Medical Officer's Update of January 2004.
Bowel Cancer
Mr. Baron: To ask the Secretary of State for Health when she will reply to the letter regarding the roll-out of the National Bowel Cancer Screening Programme, dated 13 December 2005, which was jointly signed by Bowel Cancer UK and Beating Bowel Cancer. [43778]
Ms Rosie Winterton
[holding answer 19 January 2006]: The Department has no record of receiving this letter. Since this parliamentary question was tabled we
27 Feb 2006 : Column 415W
have received a copy of the letter from the hon. Member and we are considering the points raised in it. A reply will be sent shortly.
The Government are committed to introducing a national bowel cancer screening programme. The Department's budgets for 2006–07 are currently being finalised, and announcements will be made in due course.
Dr. Murrison: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if she will publish all correspondence between her Department and the UK National Screening Committee relating to the timetable for the introduction of screening for bowel cancer. [54326]
Ms Rosie Winterton: There has been no correspondence between the Department and the United Kingdom National Screening Committee (NSC) on this subject. It is for Ministers to decide on the details of implementing any new screening programmes once they have received policy advice from the NSC.
Breast Cancer
Mr. Walker: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what percentage of women were examined by a breast cancer specialist within two weeks of a referral from their general practitioner in the last 12 months for which figures are available; and if she will make a statement. [47021]
Ms Rosie Winterton: In the last 12 months some 99.7 per cent. of women with suspected breast cancer were seen by a specialist within two weeks of urgent referral by their general practitioner.
Breastfeeding
Mr. Kidney: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans she has for the post of breastfeeding co-ordinator in England after February. [48385]
Caroline Flint: The Department is mindful of the World Health Organisation's recommendations to host a national breastfeeding co-ordinator. The current postholder leaves the Department at the end of February 2006. The Department is currently exploring how best to resource this area thereafter.
Bristol Health Services Plan
Steve Webb: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if she will place in the Library a copy of the first Gateway Review by the Office of Government Commerce into the Bristol Health Services Plan when it is completed. [40902]
Caroline Flint: The responsible officer of the North Bristol National Health Service Trust, as owner of the document, is happy to supply appropriate extracts from the Department's Gateway review of he North Bristol/South Gloucestershire Primary Care Trusts outline business case (OBC) to the Member of Parliament when the final report is available.
This document is prepared by the Department for the sole purposes of the senior responsible officer for the project and is not released as a matter of routine practice. However, in this instance appropriate extracts will be released at the discretion of the responsible officer in the interests of openness.
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Bullying
Rosie Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what facility is in place in her Department to examine incidents of bullying in addition to the internal procedures of individual NHS hospital trusts. [30391]
Mr. Byrne: Bullying of staff by managers and colleagues has no place in the national health service workplace. The Department keeps abreast of the scope and nature of bullying through the national staff surveys conducted by the Healthcare Commission. Generally, the Department does not examine individual incidents of bullying in the NHS. As a rule, individual NHS bodies should carry out investigations into allegations of bullying using their own internal procedures. Other independent bodies, including the Healthcare Commission, may become involved in, or instigate, investigations.
Cancer
Mr. Jenkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many patients normally resident in Tamworth have been treated for cancer in the past 12 months. [51422]
Ms Rosie Winterton: The information requested is shown in the table.
Notes:
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.
All diagnoses count of episodes
These figures represent a count of all FCE's where the diagnosis was mentioned in any of the 14 (seven prior to 2002–03) diagnosis fields in a hospital episode statistics (HES) record.
Diagnosis (primary diagnosis)
The primary diagnosis is the first of up to 14 (seven prior to 2002–03) diagnosis fields in the HES data set and provides the main reason why the patient was in hospital.
Secondary diagnoses
As well as the primary diagnosis, there are up to 13 (six prior to 2002–03) secondary diagnosis fields in HES that show other diagnoses relevant to the episode of care.
Patient counts
Patient counts are based on the unique patient identifier HES identification (HESID). This identifier is derived based on patient's date of birth, postcode, sex, local patient identifier and NHS number, using an agreed algorithm. Where data are incomplete, HESID might erroneously link episodes or fail to recognise episodes for the same patient. Care is therefore needed, especially where duplicate records persist in the data. The patient count cannot be summed across a table where patients may have episodes in more than one cell.
Ungrossed data
Figures have not been adjusted for shortfalls in data, that is the data is ungrossed.
Source:
Hospital Episode Statistics, NHS Health and Social Care Information Centre.
27 Feb 2006 : Column 417W
Mr. Hurd: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many people in the North West London Strategic Health Authority are identified as having cancer, broken down by London borough; and which dedicated in-hospital units are available to them. [52290]
Jane Kennedy: This information is not available in the format requested. However, the following table shows numbers of newly diagnosed cases of cancer, excluding non-melanoma skin cancer, registered in 2003, by selected London boroughs.
Source:
Office for National Statistics
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has been advised by both expert epidemiologists and members of the former steering committee on cancer registration, that non-melanoma skin cancer is greatly under-registered. Registration varies widely depending on a registry's degree of access to out-patient records and general practitioners. For this reason, numbers of newly diagnosed cases of non-melanoma skin cancer have been excluded from the data provided.
The acute hospitals in the North West London SHA area listed provide some diagnostic, in-patient treatment and palliative care services for some cancers. Specialist surgery for the less common cancers is provided on fewer of these sites:
Mr. Evans: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many patients normally resident in Lancashire have been treated for cancer in Lancashire in the past 12 months. [49794]
27 Feb 2006 : Column 418W
Mr. Byrne: The information is not available in the format requested. However, the table shows the numbers of patients who reside in the Cumbria and Lancashire Strategic Health Authority area who were treated for cancer at hospitals based in the area.
Notes:
1. 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.
2. All diagnoses count of episodes
These figures represent a count of all FCE's where the diagnosis was mentioned in any of the 14 (seven prior to 2002–03) diagnosis fields in a hospital episode statistics (HES) record.
3. Diagnosis (primary diagnosis)
The primary diagnosis is the first of up to 14 (seven prior to 2002–03) diagnosis fields in the HES data set and provides the main reason why the patient was in hospital.
4. Secondary diagnosis
As well as the primary diagnosis, there are up to 13 (six prior to 2002–03) secondary diagnosis fields in HES that show other diagnoses relevant to the episode of care.
5. Patient counts
Patients counts are based on the unique patient identifier HES identification (HESID). This identifier is derived based on patient's date of birth, postcode, sex, local patient identifier and NHS number, using an agreed algorithm. Where data are incomplete, HESID might erroneously link episodes or fail to recognise episodes for the same patient. Care is therefore needed, especially where duplicate records persist in the data. The patient count cannot be summed across a table where patients may have episodes in more than one cell.
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