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1 Sep 2008 : Column 1666W—continued
—continuedCancer: Screening
Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what work the NHS Cancer Screening Programme has undertaken since 3 December 2007 in sharing best practice in improving accessibility to screening for at-risk groups, as referred to in paragraph 3.10 of his Department's Cancer Reform Strategy, published on 3 December 2007. [220945]
Ann Keen: NHS Cancer Screening Programmes and the university of Leeds are currently working on a research project to provide guidance for communicating screening information to women from minority ethnic and low income groups. This guidance will be made available throughout both the breast and cervical screening programmes.
Cancer: Waiting Lists
Mr. Donohoe: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what percentage of people suspected of having cancer were treated within (a) two weeks and (b) one month of referral (i) in 2005 and (ii) in the last 12 months. [220569]
Ann Keen: In England during the year 2005-06, 99.7 per cent. of patients were first seen by a specialist within two weeks, following an urgent referral for suspected cancer from a general practitioner, and 95.8 per cent. of patients started treatment within one month of receiving a cancer diagnosis.
In the year 2007-08 (the most recent for which data is available), 99.9 per cent. of such patients were first seen by a specialist within two weeks, following an urgent referral for suspected cancer from a general practitioner, and 99.6 per cent. of such patients started treatment within one month of receiving a cancer diagnosis.
Cardiovascular System: Screening
Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health when he plans to introduce vascular health checks as referred to on page 35 of his Department’s document High Quality Care for All, Cm. 7432; if he will publish the projected number of people (a) being offered and (b) accepting vascular screening checks in each of the next five years; what funding he plans to provide centrally in support of the programme in each of the next five years; what contractual mechanisms he plans to use to encourage (i) GPs, (ii) pharmacies and (iii) community clinics to offer vascular health checks; and if he will make a statement. [219367]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: At full implementation, there will be 3 million invitations nationally for vascular checks. Assuming 75 per cent. uptake of invitations, this would lead to an estimated 2.2 million actual checks carried out. Existing data demonstrates that approximately 1.1 million checks are already done each year, leaving 1.1 million additional checks being performed each year. The programme will begin roll-out from 2009-10 and will be at full implementation by 2012.
Cost estimates of the programme can be found in the Technical Consultation. The cost estimates are based on scenarios fed into the economic evaluation model and should not be taken as final estimates of the cost of
the policy. The final costs will depend on the delivery route for the programme and roll-out plans. These are being developed via engagement with stakeholders during the summer and autumn. We expect to carry out further modelling to support the choice of delivery and roll-out plans.
Implementing the proposals in the final report of the NHS Next Stage Review, “High Quality Care for All”, is core business for the national health service. The NHS budget for England for 2008-09 is £96 billion and will rise to £110 billion by 2010-11. The proposals will be funded from within that settlement. Some proposals require central funding to ensure effective implementation. Central funding of £150 million in 2009-10 and £400 million in 2010-11 has been made available for this purpose.
The overall cost of the vascular checks programme is currently estimated to be from £180 million to £243 million per annum at full implementation.
There is a range of contractual mechanisms available and decisions on which will be most suitable will be taken on the basis of the discussions with the NHS and other stakeholders that are currently taking place.
Cataracts: Waiting Lists
Mr. Donohoe: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the average waiting times for treatment of cataracts in NHS hospitals were in (a) 2005 and (b) at the latest date for which figures are available; and how many treatments were provided (i) in 2005 and (ii) in the last 12 months. [220566]
Ann Keen: The information is in the following table.
| Median days waited for cataract operations and number of finished consultant episodes (FCEs) where a cataract operation was the main or secondary procedure in both 2005-06 and 2006-07 in NHS Hospitals England and activity performed in the independent sector in England commissioned by the English NHS | ||
| Median days waited | FCEs | |
| Source: Hospital Episode Statistics (HES), The NHS Information Centre for Health and Social Care. | ||
Cervical Cancer: Screening
Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps his Department has taken to increase participation of women aged 25 to 35 years in the cervical screening programme, as referred to in paragraph 3.9 of his Department's Cancer Reform Strategy; and what his latest estimate is of the proportion of 25 to 35-year-old women participating in the cervical screening programme (a) in 2008 and (b) in the previous five years. [220935]
Ann Keen: NHS Cancer Screening Programmes is commissioning a £250,000 Improvement Foundation project to tackle the falling participation of women aged 25 to 35 in the NHS cervical screening programme. Five primary care trusts have been invited to participate in this project.
Information on the proportion of women aged 25 to 35 participating in the NHS cervical screening programme in 2008 is not yet available.
National policy for the NHS cervical screening programme is that eligible women aged 25 to 49 are to be screened every 3.5 years. The following table shows the percentage of eligible women aged between 25 and 34 years with a cervical screening test result in the previous 3.5 years for the last five years.
| Percentage | |||||
| Coverage | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 |
| Note: Coverage is the percentage of eligible women with a cervical screening test result in the previous 3.5 years. Source: ONS/The Information Centre, Cervical Screening Programme: England 2006-07, Table 1. | |||||
Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what recent estimate he has made of the average time taken to return cervical screening test results to women following a test; and what advice has been issued to the NHS on achieving the two-week turnaround time standard on cervical screening results, as referred to in paragraph 3.14 of his Department's Cancer Reform Strategy. [220946]
Ann Keen: The information requested for England in 2006-07, the latest year for which figures are available, is shown in the table for the 93 per cent. of local programmes where the result letter is sent by a primary care organisation:
| Cervical screening programme: time from screening to availability of result in England, 2006-07 | |
| Percentage | |
| Source: Cervical Screening programme England 2006-07 (National Statistics and The Information Centre). | |
Advice to the national health service (NHS, Gateway number: 9782) on achieving the new 14 day turnaround time for the results of cervical screening was issued in “The Week” (issue 42, 18-24 April 2008). The advice asked strategic health authorities to bid for their local cervical screening services to receive support in achieving the 14 day turnaround time from NHS Improvement: Cancer as part of a three year rolling programme. Nine local screening services have now been identified as part of wave 1 of the programme, and NHS Improvement: Cancer will begin working with them shortly.
Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what proportion of women he estimates participated in the cervical screening programme in the last year for which figures are available in each primary care trust area in England. [220947]
Ann Keen:
I refer the hon. Member to the response I gave the hon. Member for Boston and Skegness (Mark Simmonds) on 31 January 2008, Official Report, columns
617-36W, which provides information on cervical screening coverage across England, broken down by primary care trust.
Coverage is the percentage of eligible women who have had a cervical screening test result in the previous five years.
Children: Domestic Accidents
Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many children in each region were admitted to hospital for accidents in the home in each of the last five financial years, broken down by (a) age and (b) type of accident. [221012]
Mr. Bradshaw: This information is not collected centrally. Information on admissions to hospital for accidental injury is available but the number of admissions for accidents in the home cannot be reliably identified.
Colorectal Cancer: Screening
Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health at which five sites an extension to the bowel cancer screening programme to men and women aged between 70 and 75 years is being piloted, as referred to in paragraph 3.32 of his Department's Cancer Reform Strategy. [220940]
Ann Keen: The five sites piloting the bowel cancer screening extension to men and women aged 70 to 75 are Wolverhampton, Hull, South Devon, St. Marks (London) and Norwich. The first of these pilots are due to begin in September 2008.
Deca-BDE
Lynne Featherstone: To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether he has held recent discussions on the human safety of Deca-BDE with the French Government; and if he will make a statement. [221184]
Dawn Primarolo: The Secretary of State has not held bilateral discussions about the human safety of Deca-BDE with the French Government in its capacity as Health Rapporteur. The assessment has been discussed at meetings of the European Competent Authorities for implementation of the Existing Substances Regulations. Officials from the Environment Agency and the Health and Safety Executive have represented the UK throughout the risk assessment process. The Department, through toxicology experts in the Health Protection Agency, is routinely consulted on human health aspects.
Further information is still being collected by the French rapporteur in relation to human health before a final conclusion can be reached. The European Union regulation concerning the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and restriction of Chemicals (REACH) is now in force; the risk assessment process has now been transferred to that system. In the meantime, monitoring by the Health Protection Agency continues to ensure that prompt action can be taken if new evidence suggests that human health may be at risk.
Dental Health: Children
Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what indicators his Department uses to measure dental health in children; and what the figures for each indicator were for each primary care trust in each year since 1997. [221005]
Ann Keen: We use the average number of decayed, missing and filled teeth (DMFT) in children resident in the area of each primary care trust. The information is collected from decennial national child dental health surveys and more frequent local surveys of five and 12-year-olds co-ordinated by the Public Health Observatory for the North West in collaboration with the British Association for the Study of Community Dentistry. Results from the last national survey conducted in 2003 are available on the National Statistics website at:
Information from the other surveys is available at:
Since 1993, levels of tooth decay have fallen in most age groups. The most significant change has been in older children with a reduction in DMFT in 12-year-old children from 1.4 to 0.7, which means that this age group now has the best oral health in Europe.
Dental Services
Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what internal (a) research papers and (b) reports his Department has produced or commissioned on NHS dentistry in the last 12 months. [221011]
Ann Keen: The information requested could be provided only at a disproportionate cost.
Mr. Brady: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many (a) full-time equivalent dentists on primary care NHS lists in England and (b) people not registered with an NHS dentist there are in each strategic health authority area; and what the population is within each strategic health authority area. [221698]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: The information requested is not available in the format requested.
The numbers of dentists on open national health service contracts, in England, as at 31 March 2007, are available in Table El of Annex 3 of the “NHS Dental Statistics for England: 2006/07” report. This is the latest information available.
This report has already been placed in the Library and is available at:
The numbers quoted are headcounts and do not differentiate between full-time and part-time dentists, nor do they account for the fact that some dentists may do more NHS work than others.
Under the new dental contractual arrangements, introduced on 1 April 2006, patients do not have to be registered with an NHS dentist to receive NHS care. Instead the number of patients receiving NHS dental services, ‘patients seen’ over a 24-month period is monitored and reported regularly.
Information on the numbers of patients seen by an NHS dentist in England, in the 24-month period ending 31 December 2007, and the proportion of the population this represents is available in Tables CI and C2 respectively of Annex 3 of the “NHS Dental Statistics for England: Quarter 3: 31 December 2007” report. Information is provided by strategic health authority (SHA) and by primary care trust (PCT).
This report has already been placed in the Library and is also available at:
Both of the aforementioned reports have been published by the NHS Information Centre for health and social care.
The population within each SHA area is given in the following table. The figures have been rounded to follow Office for National Statistics’ (ONS) guidelines.
| Mid-2006 population estimates using the ONS’ 2007 methodology (rounded to the nearest 100) | |
| SHA | Mid-2006 population estimate |
| Note: The sum of the SHA figures does not equal the England total due to rounding. Source: ONS. | |
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