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26 July 2007 : Column 1354W—continued
Although the Department has not made an assessment of the training, guidance and resources available in the national health service for routine screening of alcohol consumption by pregnant women, midwives routinely ask about alcohol consumption during booked antenatal appointments. The Department has also recently reworded its advice on alcohol and pregnancy. The revised advice states that
pregnant women or women trying to conceive should avoid drinking alcohol. If they do choose to drink, to minimise the risk to the baby, they should not drink more than one to two units of alcohol once or twice a week, and should not get drunk.
The Department has not commissioned or evaluated research on the clinical management of individuals affected by foetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD). However, the Government welcome the British Medical Association’s recently published guide for health care professionals on FASD which will serve to raise awareness of this and provide important advice for diagnosis and those caring for patients affected by this condition.
Prescriptions: Contraceptives
Sandra Gidley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many (a) courses of contraception and (b) contraceptive devices were prescribed to persons (i) over 16 and (ii) in each age group under 16 in each year since 1997. [150971]
Dawn Primarolo: The information available on supply of contraception and contraceptive devices supplied by community contraceptive clinics has been placed in the Library. Data in each age group under 16 can be provided only at disproportionate cost.
The information shown as follows is for prescriptions dispensed in the community (almost all of these prescriptions are written by general practice). Data by age are not available.
| Thousand | ||
| Regular methods of contraception( 1) | Contraceptive devices( 2) | |
| (1) Includes tablets, injections (including depo injections) and patches. (2) Includes implants, IUDs and IUSs. Source: Prescription information is taken from the Prescription Cost Analysis (PCA) system, supplied by the Prescription Pricing Division (PPD) of the Business Services Authority (BSA), and is based on a full analysis of all prescriptions dispensed in the community ie by community pharmacists and appliance contractors, dispensing doctors, and prescriptions submitted by prescribing doctors for items personally administered in England. The data do not cover drugs dispensed in hospitals. | ||
Sandra Gidley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health on how many occasions the morning after pill was prescribed (a) in total and (b) to girls under 16 by (i) family planning clinics, (ii) general practitioners, (iii) hospital accident and emergency departments, (iv) school nurses and (v) pharmacists since 1997. [150979]
Dawn Primarolo: The information available on emergency hormonal contraception (EHC) supplied by community contraceptive clinics is shown in the following table.
| Occasions on which emergency hormonal contraceptives were supplied at community contraceptive clinics by specified age and year—England | ||
| Thousand | ||
| All ages | Of which: Under 16 | |
| (1) Data revised in 2004-05 publication. Notes: Data prior to 2004-05 reused with the permission of the Department of Health. Source: The Information Centre KT31 return. | ||
The available data on the number of items of EHC prescribed by general practitioners are shown in the following table. Data by age are not available.
| Year( 1) | General practitioners ( T housand) |
| Source: (1) ePACT system, this contains a maximum of 60 months data | |
Information is not available on the supply of EHC by hospital accident and emergency departments and school nurses and up until the end of 2006 no pharmacists had written prescriptions for EHC.
Sexually Transmitted Diseases
Christine Russell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what plans he has to tackle the spread of genital warts, especially among people between 16 and 25; [152439]
(2) what assessment his Department has made of the impact of the incidence of genital warts on genito- urinary medicine clinical resources. [152442]
Dawn Primarolo: Genital warts is the most frequently diagnosed viral sexually transmitted infection (STI) in genito-urinary clinics in England. In 2006, the highest rates of genital warts were in both the 16-19 and 20-24 year age groups in women and in the 20-24 year old age group in men. Most cases of genital warts are asymptomatic and resolve spontaneously in healthy individuals.
To tackle the spread of STIs we have set a target that 100 per cent. of patients attending a genito-urinary medicine service are offered an appointment to be seen within 48 hours. We are already seeing excellent progress on this. Data from the Genito-Urinary
Medicine Access Monthly Monitoring return showed that in May 2007, 85 per cent. of first attendances were offered an appointment to be seen within 48 hours of contacting a service. This compares with 58 per cent. in May 2006.
Last November we launched a new adult sexual health campaign, “Condom Essential Wear”, which aims to normalise condom use among sexually active adults. The campaign focuses on STIs most prevalent in the target 18-24 year old age group.
Skills for Health
Sandra Gidley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many primary care trusts are running a skills for health programme; and how much this has cost. [152238]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: Skilled for Health early adopter partnerships are planned between local health and education bodies to provide local models of delivery for wider dissemination and as models of best practice to support wider rollout. Learning from these partnerships will be used to inform primary care trust (PCT) programmes.
Phase 1 of Skilled for Health was completed in 2006 and the teaching resources developed were published in November 2006 as part of the embedded learning curriculum content for the Skills for Life programme. They are available at no cost to PCTs and their partners from Prolog (0845 60 222 600). Copies are available in the Library. Information on how these materials are being used locally to establish Skilled for Health programmes in PCTs in not collected centrally.
Smoking: Health Hazards
Sandra Gidley:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the incidence of smoking-related diseases including (a) lung cancer, (b) heart disease and (c) chronic obstructive pulmonary disease was in (i)
Hampshire and (ii) England in each year since 1997. [151059]
Ann Keen: The information is not available in the format requested. Figures are available from Hospital Episode Statistics on the number of Finished Consultant Episodes (FCEs) in national health service hospitals in England with a primary diagnosis of diseases that can be caused by smoking. It is acknowledged that not all these FCEs which can be caused by smoking will be attributable to smoking as there are other contributory factors in these diseases. Therefore for England, the relative risks of these diseases for current and ex-smokers compared to non-smokers can be used to estimate smoking-attributable FCEs. The following tables provide either the number of FCEs that can be caused by smoking or estimates of the number of smoking-attributable FCEs.
Table 1 shows the number of FCEs in England, for people of all ages, with a primary diagnosis of various diseases which can be caused by smoking for 1996-97 through to 2005-06.
Table 2 shows the number of FCEs in England, for those aged 35 and over, with a primary diagnosis of various diseases which can be caused by smoking, and estimates of the number of these which can be attributed to smoking. Figures have been provided for 2004-05, as this is first and most recent year for which data on estimates of diseases which can be attributed to smoking are available. Figures are shown for those aged 35 and over only, because relative risks used to estimate the attributable numbers are only available for this age group.
Table 3 shows the number of FCEs in Hampshire and Isle of Wight strategic health authority (SHA), for all ages, with a primary diagnosis of various diseases which can be caused by smoking for 1996-97 through to 2005-06.
Relative risks of diseases for current and ex-smokers are not available at SHA level, so analysis estimating the numbers of smoking-attributable FCEs at SHA level cannot be provided.
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