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6 Oct 2008 : Column 412W—continued
Genito-urinary Medicine
Dr. Starkey: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what recent steps his Department has taken to implement its commitment to develop the role of the sexual health adviser, as set out in the 2001 National Sexual Health and HIV Strategy. [224325]
Dawn Primarolo: In June 2008, the Department supported the publication of the document “Sexual Health Advising—Developing the Workforce”, a copy of which has been placed in the Library.
The guidance document is for sexual health advisers, higher education institutions, strategic and public health leads and commissioners on the implications of new arrangements for educational and practice preparation of sexual health advisers. This includes the opportunity for sexual health advisers to migrate to the Specialist Community Public Health Nursing Programme.
The guidance is the culmination of collaborative work led by the Department with the Society of Sexual Health Advisers, the union UNITE and the Nursing and Midwifery Council and fulfils the Government commitment in the 2001 National Sexual Health Strategy to develop the role of the sexual health adviser, including registration with a professional body and educational development.
Headaches: Medical Treatments
Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will request the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence to complete its ONSTIM evaluation as quickly as possible. [222326]
Dawn Primarolo: The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) is assessing occipital nerve stimulation for intractable headache under its Interventional Procedures Programme. This assessment is currently suspended, pending CE marking of the devices used to carry out the procedure. NICE will continue its assessment once this situation has changed.
Health Education
Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps the Government has taken to promote local activities to encourage healthy living. [222697]
Dawn Primarolo: In January 2008, the Government published the £372 million “Healthy Weight, Healthy Lives: A Cross-Government Strategy for England”. “Healthy Weight, Healthy Lives” committed us to developing a three-year, £75 million, social marketing programme to help us all maintain a healthy weight.
As part of this programme, the Government are inviting everyone in society to join a national movement called Change4Life to help people maintain a healthy weight, by making it easier for parents to make healthier food choices and encourage more activity.
Over the past few months we have been developing a programme of events, briefings and media activities that will engage grassroots local ‘activists’—the many people who are already running activities that help children eat well and be active. They have been invited to join the Change4Life movement, and by tapping into this existing energy and commitment, we will ensure that Change4Life is not just another healthy living campaign, but a hands-on, practical and supportive movement. It will be driven by ordinary people across society, who want to do something now to combat obesity and make lives healthier.
Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what steps the Government has taken to promote safety in the sun initiatives; [222700]
(2) what recent steps the Government has taken to educate the public on the risks to health of UV rays. [222701]
Dawn Primarolo:
SunSmart, the national skin cancer prevention and sun protection campaign, is run by Cancer Research UK, on behalf of the UK Health Departments. It raises awareness and educates the public on the risks to health from ultra violet rays, both
artificial and from sunlight. The campaign works through high profile media programmes, through provision of resources and information for health promotion events and targeted campaigns, and through the SunSmart website. The main emphasis for the SunSmart campaign for this year is children and young people, with a focus on the risks to health of using sunbeds. The Department also funds the Meteorological Office to produce UV Index forecasts, which are disseminated to the media and published on the Meteorological Office website.
Health Education
Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what recent steps the Government has taken to encourage healthy eating. [222698]
Dawn Primarolo: The Government are currently working on several initiatives to encourage healthy eating, as outlined in the “Healthy Weight, Healthy Lives” Strategy which has already been placed in the Library. These include:
working with industry leaders and other relevant stakeholders to develop and deliver a Healthy Food Code of Good Practice;
the 5-A-Day programme, which seeks to promote increased consumption of fruit and vegetables (preferably five each day) and sits alongside other initiatives aimed at reducing the amount of foods consumed that are high in salt, fat and sugar, and further promoting a healthy diet;
liaising with schools to develop and apply schemes to incorporate healthy eating within schools and families, such as the school fruit and vegetable scheme which provides children, aged four to six, with a free piece of fruit or vegetable every day; and
a comprehensive social marketing programme called Change4Life. The Government will invite all parts of society to join the movement, designed to help people maintain a healthy weight by helping parents make healthier food choices for their children and encouraging more activity. It will work in collaboration with other Government Departments, the NHS, schools, voluntary groups, and commercial and media partners.
Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what progress the Government has made in raising awareness of the risks to health associated with hot weather, including dehydration. [222699]
Dawn Primarolo: The Department produces and disseminates to key health professionals a “National Heatwave Plan” which has been placed in the Library and is available on the Department’s website at:
along with supportive guidance for health professionals and social care staff. Additionally, a public facing leaflet is produced providing information on how to protect yourself and vulnerable people during a heatwave. Media messages are prepared in the event of a heatwave to raise awareness of protective actions.
Health Education: Families
Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps the Government has taken to educate families on nutrition and healthy living. [224287]
Dawn Primarolo: Health professionals are asked to offer pregnant women and families applying for the Healthy Start scheme with relevant advice on breastfeeding and healthy eating. Basic information on breastfeeding and healthy eating is also given in the Healthy Start user guide, welcome magazine sent to all new Healthy Start beneficiaries, and on the publicly available Healthy Start website.
The Government have committed £75 million to a three year marketing campaign, “Change4life Programme” which aims to provide families with the information, tools and support that they will need to help their children lead healthier lives. The programme will include a help line, website, printed information, advertising and public relations, specialist materials for ethnic minority communities and resources for professionals to use with the public. The campaign will address those areas—including healthy meal suggestions, ideas for family activity, tips and strategies for getting children to eat more healthily—where parents said they needed support and guidance.
On 21 March 2007, we launched Top Tips for Top Mums a new 5 A DAY-Just Eat More (Fruit and Veg) campaign to help families get more fruit and vegetable into their children’s diets. The campaign aims to help families by sharing real tips from real mums on how they got their kids to eat more fruit and vegetables.
The Department also runs campaigns to motivate and support smokers to stop, and these are particularly targeted at routine and manual smokers, and their families. The messages through the motivation work focus on the impact of smoking on family life. For example, a new campaign was launched in June 2008, called ‘Wanna be like you’, which highlighted to parents that smoking will dramatically increase their children’s chances of becoming smokers too.
Since September 2006, we have been running a social marketing programme to ensure that people know the consequences of drinking, by raising awareness of the importance of sensible drinking and making sure people know what units are and therefore know how much they are drinking.
The level of public concern about how much alcohol young people are drinking in their teenage years is growing. The Youth Alcohol Action Plan (YAAP) sets out the evidence that shows that there is reason to be concerned and how Government will address this issue.
Part of the YAAP is establishing a new partnership with parents. This includes providing them with advice and guidance concerning young people and alcohol, which will include clear guidelines about how consumption of alcohol can affect children and young people produced by the Chief Medical Officer, and evaluation of family based interventions to assess if they are improving outcomes and reducing risks with those affected by alcohol misusing parents.
Health Professions: Lancashire
Mr. Evans: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many (a) doctors, (b) nurses and (c) midwives are employed by the NHS per head of population in Ribble Valley constituency. [222953]
Ann Keen: The information is not held in the format requested. Information on workforce levels for East Lancashire Primary Care Trust (PCT), which is the main commissioner for the Ribble Valley population, is shown in the following table.
| NHS doctors( 1) , nurses and midwives within specified organisations as at 30 September 2007 | |||
| Organisation | Doctors | Nurses | Midwives |
| (1) Includes General Practitioners (GPs) and hospital and community health services medical and dental staff. GPs exclude retainers. Source: The Information Centre for health and social care | |||
Health Professions: Manpower
Mr. Donohoe: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many (a) doctors, (b) nurses, (c) consultants, (d) dentists and (e) midwives there were in each year since 1998. [221884]
Ann Keen: The number of doctors, nurses, consultants, and midwives there were in each year since 1998 is shown in the following table.
The numbers of national health service dentists in England, as at 31 March, 1997 to 2006 are available in Table 4 of the ‘NHS Dental Activity and Workforce Report England: 31 March 2006’. This information is based on the old contractual arrangements, which were in place up to and including 31 March 2006. This measure counted the number of NHS dentists recorded on primary care trust (PCT) lists as at 31 March each year. This report, published on 23 August 2006, has already been placed in the Library and is available on-line at:
The numbers of dentists in England with NHS activity during the years ending 31 March 2007 and 2008 are available in Table 32 of the ‘NHS Dental Statistics for England: 2007-08’ report. This information is based on the new dental contractual arrangements, introduced on 1 April 2006. Following a recent consultation exercise, this measure is based on a revised methodology and therefore supersedes previously published workforce figures relating to the new dental contractual arrangements. It is not comparable to the information collected under the old contractual arrangements. This revised methodology counted the number of dental performers with NHS activity recorded via FP17 claim forms in each year ending 31 March. This report, published on 21 August 2008, has already been placed in the Library and is available on-line at:
Further work is planned over the next 12 months to determine whether the new definition used under the new dental contractual arrangements can be applied to the years under the old contractual arrangements to produce a consistent time series.
Both reports have been published by the NHS Information Centre for health and social care.
| Total number of doctors, consultants, nurses and midwives | ||||||||||
| Headcount | ||||||||||
| At 30 September | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 |
Mr. Hepburn: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many (a) NHS doctors, (b) NHS nurses, (c) NHS dentists and (d) GPs were employed in (i) Jarrow constituency, (ii) South Tyneside, (iii) the North East and (iv) England in each year since 1997. [223737]
Ann Keen: The number of doctors, nurses and general practitioners is shown in the table.
The majority of national health service dentists are self-employed.
The number of NHS dentists, as at 31 March, 1997 to 2006 is available in Annex E of the “NHS Dental Activity and Workforce Report England: 31 March 2006”. Information is available by primary care trust (PCT) and strategic health authority (SHA). Equivalent information by constituency is available in Annex G of this report.
This measure counted the number of NHS dentists recorded on PCT lists as at 31 March each year. This report, published on 23 August 2006, has already been placed in the Library and is also on the NHS Information Centre website at:
The numbers of dentists with NHS activity during the years ending 31 March, 2007 and 2008 are available in Table G1 of Annex 3 of the “NHS Dental Statistics for England: 2007-08” report. Information is available by PCT and SHA. Information by constituency is not available.
This measure is based on a revised methodology and is not comparable to the information collected under the old contractual arrangements. This measure counted the number of dental performers with NHS activity recorded via FP17 claim forms in each year ending 31 March. This report, published on 21 August 2008, has already been placed in the Library and is also on the NHS Information Centre website at:
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