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19 Nov 2008 : Column 528W—continued
Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health on what basis the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) decided on a patient population not normally exceeding 7,000 as one of the criteria for consideration of a treatment under the supplementary advice on appraising end-of-life medicines announced by NICE on 4 November 2008; and what consideration was given to applying the advice to patient populations of (a) more than and (b) fewer than 7,000. [237032]
Dawn Primarolo: The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) is currently carrying out a public consultation on supplementary advice to its appraisal committees when they are asked to appraise life-extending medicines licensed for terminal illnesses affecting small numbers of patients.
The supplementary advice has been developed independently by NICE and states that
“The population for which the medicine is indicated and licensed should not normally exceed 7,000, with the intention of including medicines for rarer cancers and other uncommon conditions, and small groups within larger populations. The reason for selecting a small population maximum figure is that it may sometimes be the case that the costs involved in developing medicines for small groups of patients need to be reflected in a higher price, at least for the first indication.”
NICE will consider the comments it receives in response to the consultation.
Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health which interventions (a) have been and (b) are being assessed by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) through its (i) Single Technology Appraisal and (ii) Multiple Technology Appraisal processes; for which indications each treatment has been assessed; what estimate has been made of the annual eligible patient population for each treatment; and in respect of each treatment on which date (A) the treatment received its product licence, (B) the treatment was referred to NICE, (C) NICE began its appraisal and (D) NICE plans to complete its appraisal. [237086]
Dawn Primarolo: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 4 November 2008, Official Report, columns 370-76W, showing the information requested on the timings of single technology appraisals published and in development by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE). Information on appraisals conducted through NICE's multiple technology appraisal programme and information on the estimated eligible annual population for all appraisals could be collated only at disproportionate cost.
Mental Health Services: Children
Norman Lamb: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimate he has made of the cost of ensuring that no child under the age of 16 years is placed in an adult mental health in-patient ward. [237035]
Ann Keen: No estimate has been made.
The national health service has made significant progress on this issue and the latest available figures, for July to September 2008, show only five bed days for under-16s on adult psychiatric wards. This is the lowest figure since data collection started in 2005.
Mental Health Services: Standards
Stephen Hesford: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what research his Department has undertaken to establish the long-term recovery levels of patients receiving private mental health care for the purposes of benchmarking. [235817]
Phil Hope: The Department has not undertaken any research.
Methadone
Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many people were prescribed methadone in (a) the Gloucestershire Primary Care Trust area and (b) Stroud constituency in each of the last 10 years. [235961]
Dawn Primarolo: The Department does not hold information on the number of patients treated with a particular drug. However we are able to provide two related sources of data covering the Gloucestershire and Stroud areas. These are the number of methadone prescriptions and the number of people receiving specialist prescribing treatment for drug misuse.
The number of items prescribed and dispensed for methadone is in the following table. This information covers the last 60 months and is based on the primary care trust (PCT) that most closely represents the area requested.
Note:
Methadone can be used to treat more than one condition—it is licensed for use in opioid dependence, as an analgesic and as a cough suppressant.
| Number of prescription items (not individuals receiving prescriptions) of methadone | |
| Financial year | Gloucestershire PCT( 1) |
| (1) Due to changes in PCT configuration Gloucestershire PCT comprised the following PCTs, pre 2006 changes: Cheltenham and Tewkesbury PCT Cotswold and Vale PCT West Gloucestershire PCT | |
The National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse’s (NTA) National Drug Treatment Monitoring System (NDTMS) collects data on people in drug treatment in England.
NDTMS records numbers of people receiving specialist prescribing for drug treatment rather than the type of drug which is prescribed. Most of those in treatment receive oral methadone, but buprenorphine or other substitute opioids may also be prescribed.
The NDTMS only records data based on local authority boundaries, and only since 2004-05. The NDTMS does not break down data specifically for Stroud.
Data for the number of people receiving prescribing treatment in the Gloucestershire Primary Care Trust area, for each of the years since 2004-05 are given in the following table.
| Number of individual receiving prescribing treating (including methadone) for drug misuse | |
| Number | |
Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus
Mike Penning: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what budget was allocated within the East of England strategic health authority to reduce MRSA in hospitals in the latest period for which figures are available. [235731]
Ann Keen: The information requested is not held centrally. Funding to deliver reduced methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in hospitals is made available to the national health service mostly through general primary care trust (PCT) allocations. Individual PCT allocations are not broken down into funding or budgets for specific initiatives. It is for the national health service to decide locally how best to meet the national priorities set out in the “NHS Operating Framework” (a copy of which is available in the Library), including how much funding to make available. The hon. Member may therefore wish to raise this directly with NHS East of England.
NHS: Consultants
Mr. Stephen O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) with reference to the analysis of consultants’ NHS and private incomes funded by his Department what permission was sought from consultants to use this data; in what ways the data were anonymised; and how much the study cost; [232029]
(2) with reference to the analysis of consultants’ NHS and private incomes funded by his Department, what the (a) total income, (b) private income and (c) NHS income was of NHS consultants in the period analysed, broken down by (i) place of work and (ii) place of NHS employment; [232030]
(3) if he will place in the Library a copy of HM Revenue and Customs correspondence files relating to securing access to the tax return database to complete the analysis of consultants NHS and private incomes undertaken by his Department; [232451]
(4) in which regions those consultants funded by his Department and included in its analysis of consultant NHS and private income worked; and what other studies involving interrogation of consultants’ and future consultants’ tax returns he has commissioned in the last 11 years. [232452]
Ann Keen: The following table gives national health service consultants’ average total income, average private income and average NHS income for 2003-04.
The information is presented by pre-2006 strategic health authority (SHA).
Information by place of work and place of NHS employment is not available.
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