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4 Feb 2008 : Column 873W—continued
Central Lancashire Primary Care Trust: Dental Services
Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much has been allocated to the Central Lancashire Primary Care Trust for the provision of NHS dental services in 2007-08. [181695]
Ann Keen: The Central Lancashire Primary Care Trust (PCT) received a net allocation of £18.923 million for the funding of primary dental services in 2007-08. In addition, the PCT receives the benefit of all national health service dental charge income paid by patients attending local practices to help meet the gross cost of commissioning services from dental providers.
PCTs are also able to apply to their strategic health authority for separate, non-recurrent supplementary allocations to meet the costs associated with any recently qualified dentists who join local practices as dental vocational trainees for an initial period of training and supervised clinical experience.
Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many enquiries were received by the Central Lancashire Primary Care Trust on access to NHS dentists in each of the last three years. [181696]
Ann Keen: This information is not held centrally and may instead be available from the Central Lancashire Primary Care Trust.
Cervical Cancer: Death
Sandra Gidley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many women (a) under 25, (b) 25 to 35, (c) 35 to 50, (d) 50 to 60 and (e) over 60 years of age died from cervical cancer in each of the last five years for which figures are available. [183762]
Angela Eagle: I have been asked to reply.
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician, who has been asked to reply.
Letter from Karen Dunnell, dated 4 February 2008:
As National Statistician I have been asked to reply to your recent question asking how many women (a) under 25, (b) 25 to 35, (c) 35 to 50, (d) 50 to 60 and (e) over 60 years of age died from cervical cancer in each of the last five years for which figures are available. (183762)
The table below contains the number of deaths where the underlying cause was cervical cancer, by age, in England and Wales from 2002 to 2006, the latest year for which data are available.
| Number of deaths from cervical cancer( 1) by age group, England and Wales, 2002-2006( 2) | ||||||
| Under 25 | 25-34 | 35-49 | 50-59 | 60+ | All ages | |
| (1 )Selected using the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10) code C53. (2 )Figures are for deaths registered in each calendar year. | ||||||
Clostridium: Screening
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether his Department intends to bring forward proposals to screen all patients entering NHS hospitals in England for C lostridium difficile. [181022]
Ann Keen: We are introducing universal screening for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus for all elective patients by March 2009 and for all emergency patients as soon as possible over the next three years. This will reduce the likelihood of a patient developing a clinical infection or passing it on to others in hospital who may be vulnerable.
We have considered whether universal screening of patients for Clostridium difficile ( C. difficile) is the best way forward for the national health service. However, the current clinical evidence does not suggest that universal screening would be clinically effective as universal screening would not identify the majority of patients who might be carrying C. difficile bacteria, and patients without symptoms are not considered to present an increased risk of infecting others. This is why we are targeting high risk patients for C . difficile screening. All over 65s in hospital with diarrhoea already should be screened for C . difficile as set out in current guidance. This will ensure the infection is identified quickly and appropriate measures are taken to treat the patient and minimise infection of other patients.
The measures for tackling health care associated infections such as C. difficile are set out in Health Protection Agency guidance, the ‘Saving Lives’ programme and ‘Clean, safe care’ strategy.
We will keep the clinical evidence for further C. difficile screening under review and will act quickly in response to new and emerging evidence.
Commercial Directorate: Operating Costs
Mr. Oaten: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimate he has made of the costs of running the Commercial Directorate since it was established. [182937]
Mr. Bradshaw [holding answer 28 January 2008]: The Department's Commercial Directorate was established in 2003-04. The direct running costs to 2007-08, which relate to civil servant pay and non-pay costs, are shown in the following table:
| £ million | |
| (1) Forecast. | |
Departmental E-mail
Mr. Jenkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will take steps to reduce the number of hard copies of e-mails printed by officials in his Department. [179468]
Mr. Bradshaw: The Department has taken steps, over a number of years, to encourage staff not to print off e-mails, and other documents, unnecessarily. In particular, the following actions have been taken:
at staff sustainable development awareness events one of the major messages has been that staff should not print unless strictly necessary;
over the past 12 months the Department has introduced a new managed print service where existing printers, photocopiers and fax machines have been replaced by multi-function devices. This has reduced the number of print devices by three-quarters. The ratio of staff to printers has reduced from 3:1 to an average of 10:1. The fact that most staff must now walk further to collect their printing is seen as a disincentive. Where printing is necessary the default on the new printers is duplex which reduces the amount of paper used. As computers are renewed we also have a policy to supply these with larger screens, to better enable staff to read their documents on screen;
all staff in Information Services Directorate have an environmental strapline on their e-mails. Although this is changed regularly, previous straplines have reminded staff not to print unnecessarily. Other groups within the Department have adopted similar straplines; and
the amount of waste paper generated in the Department has reduced from 522 tonnes in 2004-05 to 329 tonnes in 2006-07, a reduction of 37 per cent. This greatly exceeds the Government target to reduce overall waste arisings by 5 per cent. by 2010. While there are a number of factors that have influenced this figure, it does indicate that printing of ephemeral documents (which are destined for the waste bin) has reduced.
Diabetes: Children
Mr. Streeter: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) if he will consider implementing a screening programme for type 1 diabetes in children; [183599]
(2) what guidance his Department has issued to schools on managing children with type 1 diabetes; [183600]
(3) what information his Department provides for parents on the causes and symptoms of type 1 diabetes in children; [183601]
(4) how many children were diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in the years (a) 2004-05, (b) 2005-06 and (c) 2006-07; [183602]
(5) what steps he is taking to include screening for type 1 diabetes in children in the health screening programme recently announced by the Prime Minister. [183603]
Ann Keen [holding answer 31 January 2008]: Caring for children and young people with diabetes is fundamentally different from providing services for adults. It is a complex process that must be focused firmly on the child or young person and their family and/or other carers, supported by the skills and experiences of a wide range of healthcare professionals.
It is not currently possible to screen for type 1 diabetes in children. The Department therefore has no plans to implement a screening programme for type 1 diabetes in children. The onset of the symptoms of type 1 diabetes develops quickly, and they usually require immediate medical attention.
The Prime Minister’s announcement on 7 January 2008 outlined plans to develop a programme of vascular risk assessment, which includes diabetes. Proposals for this programme will be brought forward later in the year, but this will be a programme for adults.
The Department does not collect data about the number of children diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. However, the current estimate of prevalence in the United Kingdom is one per 700-1,000 children, yielding a total of population of people with type 1 diabetes aged 25 years in the UK of approximately 25,000.
In April 2007, the Department of Health published “Making Every Young Person with Diabetes Matter”, the report of the Children and Young People with Diabetes Working Group, which looked at ways to improve diabetes services for children and young people. This report includes guidance on the management and support of type 1 diabetes in children and young people. Parents can also access guidance about the causes and symptoms of type 1 diabetes from the Diabetes UK website at:
and the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation at:
The Department for Children, Schools and Families, in close liaison with the Department, has issued guidance for schools on the development of policies for the management and administration of pupils’ medicines, and to help them put in place systems for supporting individual pupils with medical needs, including type 1 diabetes. The guidance is available at:
Dietary Supplements: EU Law
David Tredinnick:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health with reference to the answer of 25 October 2007, Official Report, column 552W, on dietary supplements: EU law, whether the Food Standards Agency (FSA) has received responses from the Governments of Jersey and Guernsey to the letters it sent on 10 September 2007; and when a collective
meeting with the representatives of these Governments is planned to take place. [184398]
Dawn Primarolo: The Food Standards Agency (FSA) has not received responses from the Governments of Jersey and Guernsey to the letters sent on the 10 September 2007 and no meetings have been arranged with the FSA.
Fluoride: Children
Kerry McCarthy: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what advice his Department has issued to (a) parents and (b) dentists on the prevention of dental fluorosis in children; [182407]
(2) what assessment his Department has made of the causes of dental fluorosis in children, other than that of fluoride added to the water supply. [182409]
Ann Keen: Dental fluorosis is characterised by a flecking, or more rarely a mottling, of teeth, often only visible when teeth are dried. If severe, it may give some people concern about the appearance of their teeth. It does not, however, affect the extra resistance to dental decay provided by exposure to fluoride. It is often caused by very young children swallowing fluoride toothpaste unsupervised. When parents or dentists make inquiries, they are referred to advice contained in “Delivering Better Oral Health: An evidence based toolkit for prevention”, which was issued to all national health service general dental practices in November 2007. The guide, advises that
“Children under 3 years should use no more than a smear of toothpaste .... And must not be permitted to eat or lick toothpaste from the tube”.
Kerry McCarthy: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what research his Department has commissioned on the prevalence of dental fluorosis in children under the age of 10 years. [182408]
Ann Keen: To date, experience of researching fluorosis shows that there are wide differences in subjective assessments even when they are made by dentists on dried teeth. We are therefore supporting a research project on the use of intra-oral cameras to assess the extent of fluorosis. If, as we expect, the research shows that the measurement of dental fluorosis can be standardised, we will undertake a further study of its prevalence and aesthetic impact.
Gastrointestinal System: Health Services
Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) how many specialist gastroenterology units there are (a) in England and (b) in each region of England; [178045]
(2) how many people in England have a gastrointestinal disease, broken down by condition; what plans he has for a National Service Framework for gastroenterology; and how many (a) gastroenterological consultants and (b) specialist gastroenterologist training posts there were in the national health service in England in each of the last five years. [178048]
Ann Keen:
Data are not held centrally on specialist gastroenterology units. Data are not held in the form
requested for people in England with gastrointestinal disease. The Department does not currently have plans for a national service framework for gastro-intestinal disease.
However, the following table sets out the medical staff within gastroenterology.
| Hospital and community health services: medical staff within gastroenterology showing consultants and doctors on training and equivalents by grade: England at 30 September each year | |||||
| Number (headcount) | |||||
| 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | |
| (1) The majority of staff within this grade are specialist registrars. These doctors are undertaking specialist training within their chosen specialty. (2 )Denotes not applicable. Source: The Information Centre for health and social care Medical and Dental Workforce Census | |||||
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