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17 Jan 2008 : Column 1449W—continued

Hepatology: Consultants

Mr. Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many consultants specialising in hepatology there are; and how many there were in (a) 1996, (b) 1998, (c) 2001, (d) 2005 and (e) 2006. [177139]

Ann Keen: This information is not collected centrally.

Hospital Wards: Gender

Mike Penning: To ask the Secretary of State for Health when he expects the use of mixed sex wards to end in the NHS. [163404]

Ann Keen: Guidance issued to the national health service requires the provision of single sex accommodation, which can take a number of forms. NHS trusts may provide single rooms, single sex bays within a mixed ward, single sex wards or combinations of these types. We do not collect information on the number of trusts who have mixed sex wards per se.

The NHS Operating Framework for 2008-09 includes a requirement for primary care trusts to agree, publish and implement stretching local plans for improvement, with identified time scales and monitoring mechanisms. The NHS Institute for Improvement and Innovation published guidance in December 2007 to support the NHS in delivering this.

Hospitals: Infectious Diseases

Norman Lamb: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many cases of (a) MRSA infection and (b) clostridium difficile infection have been diagnosed in staff working in the NHS in each of the last three years. [174243]

17 Jan 2008 : Column 1450W

Ann Keen: The Health Protection Agency collects data on all cases of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus bloodstream infections and cases of C. difficile infection in patients aged two and over in acute national health service trusts in England through the mandatory surveillance scheme but this does not include information about whether patients are also NHS staff.

Norman Lamb: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what arrangements are in place for routine screening of NHS staff for (a) MRSA infection and (b) clostridium difficile. [174244]

Ann Keen: Current guidance does not recommend routine screening of healthcare staff for either of these infections.

Universal screening of patients for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is being introduced because there is evidence that it can contribute to reducing MRSA infection rates. Expert advice is that routine screening of staff is not indicated, and therefore not recommended but may be used to help control or investigate an outbreak.

The current clinical evidence does not suggest that universal screening of staff for Clostridium difficile would be clinically, or cost, effective as individuals without symptoms are not considered to present an increased risk of infecting others.

Liver Diseases

Mr. Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many (a) males and (b) females in each age group had (i) coronary artery disease and (ii) liver cancer in (A) Southend, (B) Essex and (C) England and Wales in each of the last 10 years. [177141]

Ann Keen: The Department is not able to provide prevalence data on coronary artery disease in the form requested. However, the Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) dataset does provide the number of patients with coronary artery disease (termed coronary heart disease (CHD) in the QOF). This dataset does not separate men and women and does not hold data on the age of the patients. The data are available only from the financial year 2004-05. Only practices in England who participate in QOF are included. The number of patients is shown in the following table.

The Office for National Statistics have provided data for liver cancer in the following tables.

Quality and Outcomes Framework data
Number of patients with CHD	2004-05	2005-06	2006-07
Southend	6,015	6,158	(1)—
Essex	56,620	58,289	(2)58,857
England	1,893,184	1,900,640	1,898,565
(1 )Southend PCT was abolished in October 2007 when it merged with Castle Point and Rochford; separate data are not available. (2 )Essex strategic health authority was abolished in July 2007. This figure is an estimate obtained by adding together figures for the primary care trusts south east Essex, south west Essex, west Essex, north east Essex and mid Essex.

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17 Jan 2008 : Column 1452W

Registrations of newly diagnosed cases of liver cancer( 1) , by sex, Southend unitary authority, 1996 to 2005
	Males	Females
1996	4	3
1997	3	3
1998	5	3
1999	4	2
2000	2	4
2001	2	5
2002	8	4
2003	5	2
2004	4	5
2005	2	2
(1 )Liver cancer is coded to C22 in the International Classification of Diseases 10th Revision (ICD-10). The numbers by age group for Southend and Essex would be disclosive, so only ‘all ages’ for Southend and two age groups for Essex have been provided. Source: Office for National Statistics

Registrations of newly diagnosed cases of liver cancer( 1) , by sex and age group: Essex county, 1996 to 2005
Age group	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005
Males
0-74	13	13	15	14	23	14	18	15	16	18
75+	5	7	11	12	14	7	7	8	14	9
All ages	18	20	26	26	37	21	25	23	30	27
Females
0-74	7	10	6	7	12	7	9	3	4	5
75+	3	5	9	5	12	6	8	9	11	14
All ages	10	15	15	12	24	13	17	12	15	19
(1 )Liver cancer is coded to C22 in the International Classification of Diseases 10th Revision (ICD-10). Source: Office for National Statistics

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Registrations of newly diagnosed cases of liver cancer( 1) , by sex and age group, England, 1996 to 2005
Age group	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005
Males
Under 1	3	2	2	2	3	6	3	3	2	2
1-4	4	8	2	2	3	7	6	6	4	5
5-9	0	2	1	0	1	0	1	1	3	1
10-14	0	1	1	2	1	1	3	1	1	2
15-19	1	1	3	2	3	1	4	0	4	2
20-24	2	5	2	3	5	1	1	1	5	4
25-29	1	4	2	4	4	10	3	2	7	4
30-34	5	5	5	8	7	11	9	6	11	4
35-39	8	12	11	12	23	9	8	10	8	10
40-44	24	17	21	16	23	26	24	30	23	23
45-49	33	31	37	53	54	46	50	51	43	51
50-54	58	59	72	79	70	84	81	80	58	96
55-59	80	82	85	110	115	115	103	126	124	159
60-64	124	132	150	139	147	146	139	143	153	179
65-69	171	192	167	168	204	177	203	228	201	225
70-74	190	187	216	189	258	208	252	229	214	260
75-79	183	183	209	209	224	212	251	235	262	244
80-84	109	111	120	122	127	121	169	158	172	203
85+	63	77	63	81	80	111	114	109	90	125
All ages	1,059	1,111	1,169	1,201	1,352	1,292	1,424	1,419	1,385	1,599
Females
Under 1	2	2	2	1	1	4	2	2	2	2
1-4	3	1	2	4	3	4	4	4	2	4
5-9	1	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	2	0
10-14	1	1	0	3	2	0	0	2	3	0
15-19	2	1	1	0	2	3	4	3	1	4
20-24	1	2	1	4	2	0	2	6	3	3
25-29	2	4	3	1	4	3	0	0	1	1
30-34	5	2	3	4	3	2	3	3	11	3
35-39	7	7	3	8	5	6	8	3	9	4
40-44	10	5	10	11	8	12	13	9	11	8
45-49	14	23	13	19	21	9	21	24	20	23
50-54	29	32	25	39	30	32	30	29	46	34
55-59	36	38	38	37	39	48	60	46	50	55
60-64	66	51	60	63	70	69	56	53	57	67
65-69	82	101	93	87	96	95	106	99	97	117
70-74	136	128	133	111	139	139	131	120	140	127
75-79	116	147	152	138	155	191	143	149	154	169
80-84	121	126	112	120	138	155	170	170	185	179
85+	117	143	143	118	157	141	179	150	153	185
All ages	751	814	796	768	875	913	932	872	947	985
(1) Liver cancer is coded to C22 in the International Classification of Diseases 10th Revision (ICD-10) Source: Office for National Statistics

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