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15 May 2009 : Column 1080W—continued
Epilepsy
Mrs. Gillan: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps his Department has taken in response to the finding of its Workforce Issues discussion paper of 2006 on the adequacy of numbers of medical care staff with training and expertise in epilepsy. [275897]
Ann Keen: Local national health service organisations are best placed to determine the workforce they need to deliver high quality service for patients. The Department is committed to supporting the NHS to do this by ensuring information such as supply and demand of medical practitioners with epilepsy training is well understood throughout the NHS, and that workforce planning and education and training decisions reflect this.
The NHS Next Stage Review document ‘A High Quality Workforce’ outlined improvements for the workforce planning system, including a Centre for Workforce Intelligence and Professional Advisory Boards to provide expert research, analysis and co-ordinated clinical advice to the NHS.
This will help to ensure that the NHS has the right workforce with the right skills to deliver high quality care for all patients.
Mrs. Gillan: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what information his Department makes available for people diagnosed with epilepsy on the (a) risk factors for and (b) prevention of sudden unexpected death in epilepsy. [275898]
Ann Keen: Detailed information on epilepsy, and the risk factors associated with sudden unexpected death in epilepsy, is made available on the NHS Choices website at:
Food: Labelling
Mr. Todd: To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether he has made a recent estimate of the cost to the food industry of implementation of the EU Nutrition Labelling Directive. [275139]
Dawn Primarolo: In line with good regulation principles the Food Standards Agency produces impact assessments to gauge the costs/benefits associated with proposed nutrition labelling legislation. These impact assessments are developed with input from all stakeholders including the food industry and are updated regularly to take into account the latest developments for new European Union legislation in this area. The latest draft impact assessment for Commission Directive 2008/100/EC is available at:
The European Commission proposal for a new regulation on the provision of food information for consumers is available at:
Health Education: Influenza
Mr. Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much he has allocated for expenditure on material to inform citizens about swine influenza. [273841]
Dawn Primarolo: The cost of advertising and publicity activity across the United Kingdom on swine influenza, including the swine influenza information phone line, is approximately £7.9 million to date.
Hospitals: Infectious Diseases
Bob Spink: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what data his Department collects on products purchased by NHS trusts to tackle the spread of infectious diseases in order to monitor control of diseases spread in hospitals; and if he will make a statement. [275637]
Ann Keen: The Department does not collect information centrally on products purchased by national health service trusts. Decisions on what products to purchase for the purposes set out in the question are for local management to make.
Influenza
Jim Dowd: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimate his Department has made of the number of cases of influenza in the UK in the most recent 12-month period for which figures are available. [274751]
Dawn Primarolo: Data on the actual numbers of people in the United Kingdom who have contracted influenza are not collected.
Surveillance information on cases of influenza-like illness (ILI) is collected by the Royal College of General Practitioners. Information for the 2008-09 season was collected as rates of new cases of ILI per 100,000 general practitioner (GP) population, on a weekly basis in the flu season from 29 September 2008 to 12 April 2009. The peak weekly rate in 2008-09 was 68.5 new cases of ILI per 100,000 in the third week of December. These levels for the flu season 2008-09 are considered moderate levels of influenza activity. This information relates to England and Wales.
Prescriptions: Fees and Charges
Mr. Sanders: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will estimate the cost to the public purse of abolishing prescription charges. [275479]
Dawn Primarolo: For the period April 2007 to March 2008, the revenue raised from prescription charges collected by pharmacists and appliance contractors and from prescription prepayment certificate fees was £432 million. In addition, dispensing doctors collect charges which are retained by primary care trusts and not collected centrally. Abolishing prescription charges in England would result in the loss of income available to the national health service.
Radiography: Manpower
Mr. Clelland: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps his Department is taking to combat the shortage of qualified sonographers. [275884]
Ann Keen: The national health service is best placed to determine the workforce it needs to deliver high quality service for patients. The Department is committed to supporting the NHS to do this by ensuring information such as supply and demand of sonographers is well understood throughout the NHS, and that workforce planning and education and training decisions reflect this.
For example, the Department and NHS Workforce Review Team work to produce a list of shortage occupations for the Migration Advisory Committee. Registered therapeutic radiographers and sonographers are included in the list, which comprises skilled occupations where there are shortages that can sensibly be filled by enabling employers to recruit migrants from outside the European Economic Area (EEA).
The NHS Next Stage Review document “A High Quality Workforce” outlined improvements for the workforce planning system, including a Centre for Workforce Intelligence and Professional Advisory Boards
to provide expert research, analysis and co-ordinated clinical advice to the NHS. A copy has been placed in the Library.
This will help to ensure that the NHS has the right workforce with the right skills to deliver high quality care for all patients.
Sexually Transmitted Diseases: Young People
Norman Lamb: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many children under 16 years old were diagnosed with (a) gonorrhoea, (b) chlamydia, (c) syphilis, (d) herpes and (e) genital warts in each of the last five years. [272349]
Dawn Primarolo: Number of selected sexually transmitted infections (STI) diagnosed in genito-urinary medicine (GUM) clinics and in the National Chlamydia Screening programme (NCSP) in England, in those under the age of 16 for 2003 to 2008 are given in the following table.
| STI | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 |
| Notes: 1. Data for 2003 consist of information reported for the period 1 April 2003 to 31 December 2003. 2. Notes on GUM data: (a) The data available from the KC60 statutory returns are for diagnoses made in GUM clinics only. Diagnoses made in other clinical settings, such as general practice, are not recorded in the KC60 dataset. (b) The data available from the KC60 statutory returns are the number of diagnoses made, not the number of patients diagnosed. (c) The information provided has been adjusted for missing clinic data. (d) Data are unavailable for 2008. 3. Notes on NCSP data: (a) The NCSP has been phased in since 1 April 2003 with all 152 primary care trusts (PCTs) reporting data to the programme since March 2008. Therefore note that numbers of diagnoses have risen substantially as an increasing proportion of the target population have been tested. (b) NSCP data are presented by PCT of residence and exclude those resident outside of England. (c) The data from the NCSP Core Dataset are for positive chlamydia screens conducted within the NCSP outside of GUM clinics only and include positive screens made by the Boots pathfinder project. (d) The data available from the NCSP are the number of diagnoses made and not the number of patients diagnosed. (e) Data include chlamydia diagnoses for males, females, and those with unknown/ unspecified sex. (f) Data presented are based on tests with confirmed positive diagnoses only. Source: Health Protection Agency, KC60 returns. NCSP. | ||||||
Swine Flu
Bob Russell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will fast-track approval by the Advisory Committee on the Safety of Blood, Tissues and Organs of pathogen inactivation for blood products to ensure the UK blood supply is (A)H1N1-free; and if he will make a statement. [274791]
Dr. Desmond Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans his Department has to protect the UK from the A(H1N1) virus; if he will fast-track approval by the Advisory Committee on the Safety of Blood, Tissues and Organs of pathogen inactivation for blood products to ensure that the UK blood supply is (A)H1N1-free; and if he will made a statement. [274717]
Dawn Primarolo: The Advisory Committee on the Safety of Blood, Tissues and Organs is currently reviewing risk-reduction measures for platelets, which include pathogen inactivation. There are currently no pathogen inactivation systems available for red blood cells, the most commonly prescribed blood component. Current expert advice is that risk of transmission of influenza through blood components is low, although the position is being kept under review.
Bob Russell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what quantities of pathogen inactivated (A)H1N1-free blood products are available in the UK; what plans he has to adopt pathogen inactivation for all civilian and military blood products if the World Health Organisation designates the (A)H1N1 outbreak a pandemic; and if he will make a statement. [274792]
Dr. Desmond Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what quantities of pathogen-inactivated (A)H1N1-free blood products are stockpiled in the UK; what plans his Department has to adopt pathogen inactivation for all civilian and military blood products if the World Health Organisation designates the (A)H1N1 outbreak a pandemic; and if he will make a statement. [274720]
Dawn Primarolo: Red cells are the most commonly prescribed blood component. There are no pathogen inactivation systems currently available for red cells. Risk-reduction measures for platelets, which include pathogen inactivation, are currently being reviewed by the Advisory Committee of the Safety of Blood, Tissues and Organs. It is anticipated that this review will be completed shortly. Plasma imported from the United States of America for use in the under-16s is pathogen inactivated. Current expert advice is that risk of transmission of influenza through blood components is low, although the position is being kept under review.
Torbay Hospital: Infectious Diseases
Mr. Sanders: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much funding has been allocated to Torbay hospital to tackle (a) MRSA and (b) other similar infections in the latest period for which figures are available. [275445]
Ann Keen: The Department does not collect the information requested.
Revenue allocations are made to primary care trusts (PCTs) to cover hospital and community health services, prescribing costs and primary medical services. It is for PCTs to decide what services they should commission (such as specific hospital services), in the light of local needs and circumstances, and to meet the health care needs of the local populations they serve.
To support improvements in the national health service in reducing health care associated infections, there is comprehensive spending review funding of £270 million per year by 2010-11. This funding will be reflected in the national tariff uplift.
This includes £130 million per year by 2010-11 for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus screening for all elective admissions from April 2009, and for all emergency admissions by 2010-11, as stated in “Our NHS Our Future”, published on 4 October 2007. A copy of the publication has been placed in the Library.
Tuberculosis
Mr. Sharma: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what consideration he has given to the merits of establishing a national indicator for tuberculosis infection. [274798]
Dawn Primarolo: The NHS Next Stage Review considered all aspects of health care including tuberculosis and the need to set new targets. It introduced no new national targets, to ensure that the national health service continues to focus on the small number of targets in the NHS Operating Framework. Where the incidence of tuberculosis is a local issue, primary care trusts are empowered to deal with it.
Home Department
Anabolic Steroids
James Duddridge: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what recent discussions she has had on the classification of anabolic steroids. [274326]
Mr. Alan Campbell [holding answer 11 May 2009]: Anabolic steroids are controlled as Class C drugs under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971. The Government have accepted the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs recommendation to control a further 24 anabolic steroids and two non-steroidal agents (growth promoters) as Class C drugs and Schedule 4 Part 2 of the Misuse of Drugs Regulations 2001 so as not to preclude legitimate use on prescription. A formal, public consultation on this proposal will be published shortly.
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