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28 Oct 2008 : Column 896W—continued


Asthma: Prescriptions

Mr. Wareing: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will add asthma to the list of conditions for which patients should receive free prescriptions; and if he will make a statement. [229751]

Phil Hope: As announced in the written ministerial statement to the House on 8 October 2008, Official Report, column 17WS, Professor Ian Gilmore has been asked to lead a review of prescription charges on how to implement our plans to phase in free prescriptions for those people in England with long term conditions effectively. We expect to publish the findings of this review in summer 2009.

Blood

Mr. Laxton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans the Advisory Committee on the Safety of Blood, Tissues and Organs has to undertake bacterial infection in blood trials as part of their comprehensive review of pathogen inactivation for blood products in 2009. [229595]

Dawn Primarolo: Information from NHS Blood and Transplant trials including published literature on pathogen inactivation will be discussed as part of the independent Advisory Committee on the Safety of Blood, Tissues and Organs (SaBTO) review on options to reduce the risk of bacterial infection in blood. SaBTO does not commission research of this type. The Department in conjunction with the UK Blood Services have commissioned relevant research, trials and efficacy studies, which are due to be completed before any intervention is presented to SaBTO for their consideration and subsequently implemented.

Breast Cancer: Ethnic Groups

Harry Cohen: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) when information on incidence and mortality will be collected for people with breast cancer from black, Asian and other minority ethnic backgrounds; and if he will make a statement; [229653]

(2) what the timeframe is for evaluating and agreeing models that collect data on prevalence of people with breast cancer from black, Asian and other minority ethnic backgrounds; and if he will make a statement. [229654]

Ann Keen: Incidence and mortality data are already collected for all patients with cancer, and compiled through the regional cancer registries. The National Cancer Intelligence Network (NCIN) has cross-linked the most recent 10 years of complete data from hospital episode statistics (HES) to cancer registry data, which has enabled ethnicity data from HES to be assigned to cancer registry records. Using this linked repository, the NCIN will publish its first report on cancer incidence and mortality in relation to ethnicity in 2009.

The NCIN, working with Macmillan and the Thames Cancer Registry, published preliminary figures on cancer prevalence in July 2008 and a full report is due to be published in January 2009. Work to publish figures on prevalence by ethnicity will follow the NCIN report on cancer incidence and mortality in relation to ethnicity.

Breasts: Health Services

Mr. Pelling: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many breast care nurses are working in the NHS. [230276]


28 Oct 2008 : Column 897W

Ann Keen: It is not possible to supply a figure for the number of nurses there are within the national health service working in breast care as this information is not
28 Oct 2008 : Column 898W
collected centrally. A break down of nurses by area of work is shown in the following tables.

Table 3a: NHS hospital and community staff: qualified nursing, midwifery and health visiting staff by area of work 1996 to 2007, England as at 30 September each year
Headcount

1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007

All areas of work

301,253

300,467

304,563

310,142

316,752

330,535

346,537

364,692

375,371

381,257

374,538

376,737

Acute, elderly and general

160,165

159,934

161,980

165,643

170,261

177,904

187,439

201,184

203,358

205,611

204,112

205,601

Paediatric

15,520

15,341

16,266

16,689

16,922

17,640

18,014

18,437

18,917

19,178

18,634

18,923

Maternity

28,916

28,409

29,174

29,258

29,304

29,177

29,524

30,776

32,056

32,072

32,103

32,919

Psychiatry

38,827

39,109

38,141

38,999

39,529

41,539

42,654

44,728

47,390

48,553

48,478

48,499

Learning disabilities

12,105

11,111

10,736

9,923

9,497

9,776

9,550

8,950

8,656

8,824

7,583

7,618

Community services

44,914

45,898

47,601

48,972

50,481

52,401

53,814

57,588

61,559

63,257

62,343

61,997

Education staff

806

665

665

658

758

903

985

1,147

1,346

1,336

1,285

1,180


Table 3b: NHS HCHS: Qualified nursing, midwifery and health visiting staff by area of work 1996 to 2007, England as at 30 September each year
Full-time equivalent

1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007

All areas of work

248,070

246,011

247,238

250,651

256,276

266,171

279,287

291,925

301,877

307,744

307,447

307,628

Acute, elderly and general

130,996

130,462

131,271

133,981

138,120

144,597

154,057

162,671

166,098

168,759

169,284

168,912

Paediatric

12,591

12,590

13,084

13,383

13,644

13,997

14,546

14,825

15,258

15,412

15,302

15,416

Maternity

23,192

22,776

23,059

22,919

22,776

22,684

23,043

23,758

24,463

24,750

24,961

25,654

Psychiatry

35,444

35,296

34,627

34,974

35,804

36,973

38,176

39,383

41,585

42,529

42,716

42,602

Learning disabilities

10,714

9,883

9,329

8,775

8,398

8,440

8,323

7,824

7,526

7,367

6,767

6,593

Community services

34,399

34,422

35,299

36,058

36,871

38,221

39,302

41,850

44,989

46,917

47,338

47,448

Education staff

733

582

568

562

662

760

819

968

1,140

1,119

1,079

1,004

Notes:
1. Totals may not equal the sum of component parts due to rounding and the inclusion of unclassifiable staff.
2. More accurate validation this year means that in 2006 9,858 duplicate records were identified and removed from the non-medical census.
3. The impact of duplicates on full-time equivalent has been minimal with the removal of 507.

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