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9 Oct 2006 : Column 614W—continued
Health
Abortions
Mr. Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Health which 10 primary care organisations had the (a) highest and (b) lowest abortion rates in England per 1,000 women aged 15 to 44 years in 2005. [89678]
Caroline Flint: The information is set out in the following table.
Acupuncture
Mr. Weir: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what guidance she has issued to allied health professionals regulated by the Health Professions Council on the provision of acupuncture treatment to patients. [89440]
Andy Burnham: Decision making on individual clinical interventions, using either complementary or more orthodox treatments, is a matter for primary care trusts and local national health service service providers. There are no centrally held records on what complementary medicines are provided by the NHS or how much is spent on their provision.
When making any clinical decision, general practitioners are expected to consider safety and effectiveness. In 2000, the Department produced an information pack for both primary care groups and primary care clinicians to provide a basic source of reference on complementary medicine and support individual clinical judgement.
Agency Staff
Mr. Weir: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what average hourly rate her Department paid to employment agencies for agency staff in each year since 1999, broken down by agency. [89435]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: The Department does not collect information that would provide such an analysis of agency staff. As such, the information is not available in the format requested and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
Alcohol Dependency
Sandra Gidley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much funding has been made available to treat alcohol dependency in each strategic health authority area in each of the last 10 years; and if she will make a statement. [90276]
Caroline Flint: This information is not held centrally. However the estimated annual spend on specialist treatment for 2003-04 is £217 million.
Alimta
Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) if she will ask the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence to review its decision on Alimta; [89629]
(2) what recent research she has (a) commissioned and (b) evaluated on the cost effectiveness of Alimta; and if she will make a statement. [89630]
Andy Burnham: The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) is currently conducting an appraisal of pemetrexed disodium (Alimta) for the treatment of malignant pleural mesothelioma. Alimta is licensed for this indication and there are currently no national restrictions on the prescribing of this drug.
NICE published its Final Appraisal Determination on Alimta for mesothelioma on 26 June. This does not constitute NICE’s final guidance to the national health service and consultees were given until 10 July to lodge an appeal. I understand that two appeals have been received and a hearing will take place on 27 October.
The Department has not commissioned or evaluated any research on the cost effectiveness of Alimta.
Ambulance Service
Mr. Weir: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the average response time to an emergency call to the Ambulance Service was in each NHS trust area in each year since 1990. [89417]
Ms Rosie Winterton: The Department collects ambulance response time data by ambulance trust and in relation to response time requirements rather than by average response time. Therefore, the information requested is not centrally collected in the required format.
The data that the Department does collect on ambulance response times have been published on an annual basis in the statistical bulletin, ‘Ambulance services, England’. These documents are all available in the Library and from 1998-99 they have been published on the Department's website at:
www.dh.gov.uk/assetRoot/04/11/36/79/04113679.pdf
Ambulance Trusts
Mr. Hands: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the timetable is for the regionalisation of ambulance trusts; and if she will make a statement. [89804]
Ms Rosie Winterton: Following a 14-week consultation, 25 national health service ambulance trusts were dissolved, and nine new ambulance trusts were established on 1 July 2006. There are now 12 NHS ambulance trusts in England. In addition, the Isle of Wight Healthcare Primary Care Trust provides ambulance services for the Isle of Wight.
Bed Occupancy
Mr. Lidington: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many NHS hospital trusts were operating with bed occupancy levels higher than 82 per cent. in the most recent 12 month period for which figures are available; and if she will make a statement. [89861]
Andy Burnham: Data on average bed occupancy levels is published on the Department’s website at:
www.performance.doh.gov.uk/hospitalactivity/data_requests/download/beds_open_overnight/bed_05_detail.xls.
These data are available by national health service trust and the most recent data are for financial year 2004-05. Copies have been placed in the Library.
Cancelled Operations
Mr. Weir: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many operations were cancelled on (a) the day of and (b) the day after admission in each quarter of the last 10 years for which figures are available, broken down by NHS (i) trust and (ii) hospital; and how many of the patients involved were not readmitted within a month. [89441]
Andy Burnham: Data on the number of operations cancelled by the hospital at the last minute for non-clinical reasons are published on the Department’s website at:
www.performance.doh.gov.uk/hospitalactivity/data_requests/cancelled_operations.htm.
Copies are available from the Library.
A last minute cancellation is a cancellation on the day the patient was due to arrive, after the patient has arrived in hospital or on the day of their operation/surgery. Data are not collected separately on the number of operations cancelled on (a) the day of and (b) the day after admission.
All patients whose operations are cancelled by the hospital at the last minute should be offered a new operation date within 28 days. Under the cancelled operations guarantee, if the national health service trust is unable to treat the patient within this 28 day period then it must offer the patient treatment elsewhere at a time and hospital of the patient’s choice. If the patient does choose to have their treatment elsewhere, then the original NHS trust must fund this treatment.
Data on the number of patients not admitted within 28 days of a last minute cancellation are also published on the aforementioned website. This is available broken down by NHS trust and strategic health authority, and dates back to 1997-96.
Carers
Mrs. Hodgson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) how many (a) carers of people with a learning disability, (b) children with a learning disability and (c) adults with a learning disability in Gateshead and Sunderland received a short break service in the last 12 months; [89834]
(2) how many hours short break service, on average, were provided on behalf of people with a learning disability in Gateshead and Sunderland who receive the care component of disability living allowance at the (a) highest rate, (b) middle rate and (c) lowest rate; [89835]
(3) how much in each of the last three years was spent on short break provision in Gateshead and Sunderland; and how many hours break this provided in each year. [89836]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: This information is not held centrally. It is the responsibility of local commissioners to ensure appropriate provision of services to meet their community’s needs.
Cervical Cancer
Sandra Gidley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps her Department is taking to reduce the incidence of cervical cancer; and if she will make a statement. [90238]
Ms Rosie Winterton: The national health service cervical screening programme (NHSCSP) was introduced in 1988 and women aged 25 to 64 are invited for a free cervical screening test every three to five years. Women over 65 are invited if any of their previous three tests were not clear or if they have never been screened.
Cervical screening is not a test for cancer but for abnormalities which, if left undetected and untreated, may develop into cancer. Early detection by screening and follow-up treatment can prevent around 80 per cent. of cervical cancers developing.
In 2004-05, 80.3 per cent. of eligible women in England had a cervical screening test result at least once in the last five years(1). 3.6 million women were screened(2) and laboratories reported four million tests. 124,000 women were referred following abnormal results. Experts estimate that the NHSCSP is now saving up to 5,000 lives a year(3).
Following an appraisal by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) in 2003, the cervical screening programme in England is currently being modernised with the introduction of liquid based cytology (LBC), which offers a new way to prepare screening test samples for examination in the laboratory.
NICE concluded LBC will reduce the number of unsatisfactory tests and improve the speed with which slides can be read. Due to a large retraining programme, full implementation is expected by 2008.
As of June 2006 over 50 per cent. of local screening programmes had implemented LBC or were in the process of retraining.
The Government are also committed to speeding up the results of cervical screening, and officials are working with key stakeholders on the best way of taking this forward.
Notes:
1 Department of Health Statistical Bulletin, Cervical Screening Programme, England: 2004-05
2 Department of Health Statistical Bulletin, Cervical Screening Programme, England: 2004-05
3 Peto et al, Lancet 2004; 364: 249-56
Child Obesity
Mr. Paul Murphy: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what recent discussions (a) she and (b) her Department has had on measures to tackle obesity amongst children through (i) better diet and (ii) exercise in schools. [90081]
Caroline Flint:
The national healthy schools programme now has four mandatory requirements for schools to satisfy and gain healthy school status, which are healthy eating, physical activity, emotional health and personal and social health education. The programme is on track to achieve both of the targets
set out in ‘Choosing Health’; to have half of all schools to be ‘Healthy Schools’ by December 2006 with all schools working towards healthy school status by 2009.
The school fruit and vegetable scheme continues to give all four to six-year-olds in schools and attached nurseries a free piece of fruit and vegetable a day. We are also in discussion with the youth sports trust to consider the introduction of pedometers in schools on a larger scale. The Department’s regional workforce, together with the school food trust, is now working to support schools in developing whole school food policies and addressing obesity issues.
In addition, we will be considering the local data from weighing and measuring school children, which should be received from primary care trusts in autumn 2006. This should enable us to better target areas with high levels of overweight and obese children.
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