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14 Jan 2008 : Column 999W—continued
Cancer: Screening
Mr. Lansley:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much his Department’s plans (a) to tackle the falling participation of women aged 25 to 35 years in cervical screening, (b) to extend breast cancer screening to nine screening rounds between 47 and 73
years, (c) rollout digital mammography, (d) to expand the bowel cancer screening programme from 2010 and (e) to introduce a new National Awareness and Early Diagnosis initiative are expected to cost in each financial year for which an estimate has been made. [172451]
Ann Keen: The requested information is shown in the following table.
Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the expected expenditure is on the NHS Cancer Screening Programme's press offices public relations strategy, referred to in paragraph 3.17 of his Department's Cancer Reform Strategy; and if he will make a statement. [175135]
Ann Keen: National health service cancer screening programme's press office public relations strategy to improve the coverage of cervical screening is in its planning stages, and exact costings cannot be provided at this stage. NHS cancer screening programmes will take steps to ensure the strategy is structured and delivered in the most cost effective manner.
Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what proportion of women participated in the cervical screening programme (a) in total and (b) in the 25 to 33 age group in each year since 1997. [175138]
Ann Keen: The Cancer Reform Strategy highlighted the falling participation in cervical screening of women aged 25 to 35. The information requested is provided in the following table.
| Coverage | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 |
| Note: Coverage is the percentage of eligible women with a cervical screening test result in the previous five years Source: Office for National Statistics/The Information Centre for health and social care, Cervical Screening Programme: England 2006-07 | |||||||||||
Cannabis
Mr. Boris Johnson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many admissions there were related to the use of cannabis in each hospital within Greater London in each year since 1997. [178459]
Dawn Primarolo: The information is not available in the format requested. Such information as is available has been placed in the Library.
Carers’ Allowances
Mr. Stephen O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans he has for the future of the carer's allowance. [175354]
Mrs. McGuire: I have been asked to reply.
The whole issue of carers' incomes, including carer's allowance, is being examined in depth as part of the current review of our National Carers Strategy. The findings of the review are due to be published in spring 2008.
College of Chiropractors: Royal Charters
Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make it his policy to support the application by the college of Chiropractors to the Privy Council for a royal charter. [175203]
Mr. Bradshaw: An application by the college of Chiropractors has been submitted to the Privy Council for a royal charter. Decisions as to whether to grant a royal charter are a matter for the Privy Council, who will of course assess the college's application against the published criteria. It would not be appropriate for us to prejudge or pre-empt the Privy Council's collective discussions.
Communication Skills: Children
Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health where the pilots on communication skills for effective face-to-face communication for children and young people, referred to in paragraph 5.14 of his Department's Cancer Reform Strategy, have been undertaken; and when he expects the course based on the national model to be developed. [175117]
Ann Keen: Two pilots were held, one in Esher and one in Liverpool. It is anticipated that the children and young people communication training programme will be taken forward when the united model for adult advanced communications skills training is rolled out early next year.
Communication Skills: Health Professions
Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what funding has been committed to the national programme for advanced communication skills training for senior healthcare professionals, as described in paragraph 5.11 of his Department’s Cancer Reform Strategy, in each year since 2003; and how many senior healthcare professionals have taken part in the national programme in each of those years. [175118]
Ann Keen: The following table shows the funding allocated to the national programme for advanced communications skills training between the financial years 2005-06 and 2007-08. This funding is allocated through the bundle of central budgets to strategic health authorities.
| Funding (£ million) | |
| Source: Cancer Action Team | |
The cancer action team manage this programme in partnership with other parts of the national health service. In the last three years, the programme has trained 150 facilitators to deliver this course and approximately 1,300 senior healthcare professionals have participated in the training. It is estimated that an equivalent number will be trained in 2007-08.
Prior to 2005-06 the programme was managed by the NHS University and figures are not available for that period.
Community Hospitals
Derek Wyatt: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make representations to the Chief Executive Officer of the Eastern and Coastal Primary Care Trust to address the concerns raised in a letter to him dated 6 November 2007 from the hon. Member for Sittingbourne and Sheppey on behalf of Rodmersham Women’s Institute on the changes to community hospitals in general and at Sittingbourne Memorial Hospital in particular. [176264]
Mr. Bradshaw [holding answer 7 January 2008]: It is for primary care trusts (PCTs) in conjunction with other local stakeholders and their strategic health authorities (SHAs) to make assessments of health needs and to make decisions on local services.
South East Coast SHA has advised officials, that the Chief Executive of Eastern and Coastal Kent PCT replied to the hon. Friend’s letter dated 6 November, on 19 December.
More generally, the Department set up a £750 million fund for community hospitals and services in July 2006. The Department has so far approved 23 schemes, and released £190 million from the community hospitals programme for these schemes.
Community Hospitals: Greater London
Mr. Boris Johnson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) how many bids from primary care trusts within Greater London have been received for the funding for community hospitals announced by his Department in December 2005 also work for organisations outside his Department; [178455]
(2) how much has been allocated to primary care trusts within Greater London from the funding for community hospitals announced by his Department in December 2005. [178456]
Mr. Bradshaw: We have received seven bids from primary care trusts within the London strategic health authority. Four schemes have been approved with a total value of £33.6 million, of which £14.3 million is funded from the community hospitals and services programme.
Community Nurses: Manpower
Anne Milton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health with reference to the answer of 23 October 2007, Official Report, column 262W, on community matrons, what assessment he has made of progress in meeting his departmental target of recruiting 3,000 community matrons by 2008. [173234]
Ann Keen: Although the National Health Service Improvement Plan (2004) stated that there would be 3,000 community matrons in post by 2008, we brought delivery forward to 2007, to ensure that the appropriate number of community matrons were in post to support delivery of the Emergency Bed Day reductions.
During the local delivery planning exercise last summer, strategic health authorities raised the need for flexibility to change their target envelopes for community matrons in situations where they could provide compelling evidence that there was a local need to do this. The Department provided this flexibility in recognition of the fact that in some cases a case manager other than a community matron may be best placed to provide the service to the patient.
2006 NHS work force census showed there were 366 community matrons in post, an increase of 37.1 per cent. since 2005. However, local intelligence suggests that there are actually many more community matrons in post than the work force census suggests, along with others delivering care and providing services to patients.
We remain committed to increasing the number of community matrons and local development plans strongly suggest this is happening. The equivalent results of the 2007 NHS work force census will be published in the spring of this year.
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