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19 Feb 2007 : Column 24W—continued
Better Healthcare
Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what instructions her Department has given to the Programme Steering Group responsible for reviewing the Better Healthcare, Closer to Home proposals; and if she will make a statement. [114641]
Andy Burnham: The care closer to home demonstration group is overseeing the care closer to home demonstration project. Its terms of reference are:
to provide a strategic overview to sub-groups;
to determine the evaluation arrangements;
to provide a steer to the sub-groups about the closer to home themes;
to determine what should happen to the recommendations;
to sign off and submit interim and final report;
to secure professional support for recommendations; and
to be the public face of the project.
Binge Drinking
Sandra Gidley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what material her Department has provided to schools and colleges to raise awareness of binge drinking. [111001]
Caroline Flint: The Government’s national campaign “know your limits” is the first to focus on binge drinking. Campaign leaflets on binge drinking and young people are distributed from health promotion units around the country. One of their major customer groups are schools and colleges.
Alcohol education materials are routinely made available to schools and colleges through the network of health promotion units around the country.
Mr. Dai Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment she has made of the effect on demand for NHS (a) accident and emergency and (b) longer term services of trends in teenage binge drinking. [103044]
Caroline Flint: Table 1 uses the age group 16 to 19 as a proxy measure for teenage binge drinking. It also uses the Information Centre’s measure of binge drinking—boys drinking more than eight units in one day and girls drinking more than six units a day.
Table 1 shows that, between 1998 and 2004, binge drinking by this age group changed very little.
We are unable to determine if demand by this age group for accident and emergency services has increased, as records are not kept in a way that would allow us to make this assessment.
Table 2 shows that admission to hospital following a visit to accident and emergency by this age group in each year from 1998-99 to 2005-06 rose from 4,114 to 7,237. This is almost entirely due to incidents of acute intoxication in this age group.
Well over 90 per cent. of alcohol related admissions to hospital for this age group come via accident and emergency. Few admissions come from other sources such as GPs or planned admissions, indicating a small burden on longer term services.
| Table 1: Drinking last week by sex—people aged 16 to 19 in 1998 to 2004 | ||||||
| Percentage | ||||||
| 1998( 1) | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | |
| (1) 1998 data are unweighted (2) Binge is defined as those drinking 8/6 units on at least one day a week Source: Statistics on Alcohol: England, 2006—The Information Centre for health and social care. | ||||||
| Table 2: Counts of finished admission episodes for patients aged 16-19 with a primary or secondary diagnosis of selected alcohol related diseases( 1) , NHS Hospitals, England 1998-99 to 2005-06 | |||
| Admission via A and E | Admission not via A and E | Unknown method of admission | |
| (1) Alcohol related diseases defined as following ICD-10 codes: F10: Mental and behavioural disorders due to use of alcohol K70: Alcoholic liver disease T51: Toxic effect of alcohol Note: Finished admission episode. 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. Source: Hospital Episode Statistics, The Information Centre for health and social care. | |||
Blood: Screening
Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what discussions she has had with Coventry Teaching Primary Care Trust on the provision of blood test clinics. [118048]
Caroline Flint: The provision of blood test clinics is a matter for the relevant local health community. However, the NHS West Midlands reports that the Coventry Teaching primary care trust has recently introduced changes to its blood test clinics with the aim of providing a more clinically appropriate and efficient service.
Cancer Treatment
Mr. Fraser: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much financial support her Department gave to the cancer collaborative on (a) breast cancer, (b) lung cancer, (c) prostate cancer and (iv) colorectal cancer in each of the last eight years. [106345]
Ms Rosie Winterton: Information is not available for the financial years prior to 2001-02 and the available information was not recorded in the format requested.
The table shows the annual allocations to the national health service from the Department to support the employment of local staff and continuation of projects run by the cancer services collaborative-improvement partnership (CSC-IP). These amounts do not include those funds used to support the central co-ordinating team of the CSC-IP.
| Financial year | Allocation (£000) |
From the financial year 2005-06 onwards, the monies to support the CSC-IP were devolved to the NHS for local management. Information on these funds is not collected centrally.
Dr. Iddon: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what recent estimate she has made of the average length of time it takes for a new cancer treatment to go from the laboratory discovery to being available from the NHS. [112427]
Caroline Flint: The Department has made no estimate of the length of time it takes a medicine to go from discovery to use in the national health service. The length of time will vary considerably from drug to drug. Information supplied by the pharmaceutical industry suggests that medicines typically take 10 to 12 years to come to market. These estimates are not specific to cancer medicines.
Carbon Monoxide
Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many people died as a result of carbon monoxide poisoning in 2006. [118797]
Caroline Flint: Data giving the number of deaths in 2006 as a result of carbon monoxide poisoning are not yet available. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has indicated that data on death registrations for 2006 will not be available until April or May 2007 and data on death occurrences for 2006 will not be available until October or November 2007.
The ONS usually provides data for carbon monoxide deaths based upon deaths occurring in each year and the ONS anticipates the 2006 data would not be available until late November 2007.
The latest ONS data available for England and Wales for 2005 indicates 257 deaths due to carbon monoxide poisoning(1).
(1) The cause of death was defined using the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10) code T58.
Cholesterol
Mr. Love: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if she will set targets for improving the (a) total cholesterol and (b) low density lipoprotein cholesterol levels among patients at high risk of coronary heart disease in England; and if she will make a statement. [111685]
Ms Rosie Winterton: Our policy on cholesterol targets is set out in the national service framework for coronary heart disease, and reflected in key drivers of practice such as the quality and outcomes framework of the general medical service contract.
One of the principal mechanisms for updating policy is through the National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE). NICE is currently working on guidance on lipid management, due out later this year. That guidance will set out any revisions to current policy on targets for controlling cholesterol.
Mr. Love: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what information she collects on the (a) total cholesterol and (b) low density lipoprotein cholesterol levels of (i) patients at high risk of coronary heart disease and (ii) patients suffering from diabetes; and if she will make a statement. [111686]
Ms Rosie Winterton: The new General Medical Services (GMS) contract specification encourages primary care practices to identify patients with coronary heart disease (CHD), stroke and diabetes and to control cholesterol in those patients. The following tables show the percentage of available points achieved against these indicators across England demonstrating that general practitioner practices are making good progress in improving control of cholesterol in patients with cardiovascular disease.
The applicable quality and outcomes framework (QOF) indicators and the overall percentages are as follows:
| CHD 8: Percentage of patients with coronary heart disease whose last measured total cholesterol (measured in the last 15 months) is 5mmol/l or less. | |
| QOF | Overall percentage CHD 8 for England |
| Stroke 8: Percentage of patients with TIA or stroke whose last measured total cholesterol (measured in the last 15 months) is 5mmol/l or less | |
| QOF | Overall percentage stroke 8 for England |
| DM 17: Percentage of patients with diabetes whose last measured total cholesterol within previous 15 months is 5mmol/l or less | |
| QOF | Overall percentage DM17 for England |
| Notes: Please note some patients may be excluded from the indicator because of exceptions and exclusions. Only patients registered with a general practice participating in QOF will be included | |
Cirrhosis
Sandra Gidley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many children under 18 years were diagnosed with alcohol-related cirrhosis of the liver in each of the last 10 years. [111009]
Caroline Flint: The table shows details of children under 18 years who were diagnosed with alcohol related cirrhosis of the liver in the last 10 years.
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