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8 Jun 2009 : Column 739W—continued
Lung Cancer
Mark Simmonds: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many lung cancer patients in each (a) cancer network and (b) strategic health authority area received (i) surgical resection, (ii) chemotherapy, (iii) radiotherapy and (iv) any active anti-cancer treatment in each of the last three years; and if he will make a statement. [277827]
Ann Keen: This information is not held centrally.
Lyme Disease
Julia Goldsworthy: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what recent advice on Lyme disease his Department has received from the National Expert Panel on New and Emerging Infections; and at what date such advice was received; [278708]
(2) what recent advice on Lyme disease his Department has received from the Advisory Committee on Dangerous Pathogens; and at what date such advice was received. [278709]
Ann Keen: The National Expert Panel on New and Emerging Infections (NEPNEI) concluded, in November 2004, that Lyme disease was the most significant public health vector-borne disease in the United Kingdom. The Panel considered incidence and detection of disease in the UK and modes of transmission.
In 2006, the Chief Medical Officer, Sir Liam Donaldson, asked Professor Brian Duerden, the Inspector of Microbiology and an assessor member of both NEPNEI and the Advisory Committee on Dangerous Pathogens (ACDP), to conduct an investigation into the use of unvalidated tests in the diagnosis of Lyme disease. His report “The use of unorthodox and unvalidated laboratory tests in the diagnosis of Lyme borreliosis and in relation to medically unexplained symptoms”, has been placed in the Library.
Since then, the Department has received regular advice on Lyme disease from Professor Duerden, the latest of which was in February 2009, confirming that the current guidance for clinicians on the detection, diagnosis and treatment of Lyme disease as published by the Health Protection Agency (HPA) is entirely appropriate for the management of Lyme disease in the UK. Advice was also received confirming that only validated tests that conform to the internationally agreed criteria for the diagnosis of Borrelia burgdorferi, the causative agent for Lyme disease, should be used for the diagnosis of Lyme disease. This advice is consistent with that on the HPA’s website.
The HPA is also represented on both NEPNEI and ACDP.
Memory Clinics
Mr. Harper: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many memory clinics for dementia sufferers have been established (a) in England and (b) in Gloucestershire in each of the last five years. [278172]
Phil Hope: The information requested on the number of memory clinics for dementia sufferers established nationally and in Gloucestershire in each of the last five years is not collected centrally. It is for primary care trusts to decide on the number and location of memory clinics depending on local circumstances.
Mental Health Services
Ms Abbott: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans his Department has to facilitate the provision by primary care trusts of single sex wards in psychiatric units; and if he will make a statement. [277852]
Phil Hope: Men and women should not share sleeping accommodation, bedrooms or bed bays, or sanitary provision on mental health units. Effective gender separation can be provided in single sex wards or on mixed sex wards. Currently, 70 per cent. of sleeping accommodation in the mental health estate is in single rooms.
In January 2009, the Department announced a package of measures designed to help hospitals all but eliminate mixed-sex accommodation, the “Same-sex accommodation: your privacy, our responsibility” campaign. This includes:
a £100 million Privacy and Dignity Fund to support improvements and adjustments to hospital accommodation;
providing good practice information and guidance to trusts;
sending an improvement team to hospitals that need extra support; and
introducing rigorous and transparent performance measures.
Primary care trusts are required to work with local providers, including mental health trusts, to deliver substantial and meaningful reductions in the number of service users that report sharing sleeping or sanitary accommodation with members of the opposite sex and to increase the provision of women-only day space in mental health units.
Guidance on achieving effective gender separation on mental health units has been published in the Institute for Innovation and Improvements guide on mixed sex accommodation and in the mental health capital project commissioning guide “Laying the Foundations”.
Mental Health Services: Hospital Beds
David Davis: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many dedicated in-patient beds for mental health patients there are in each NHS primary care trust area in England. [278423]
Phil Hope: We do not collect the exact data requested centrally. However, the following table shows mental health in-patient beds in each provider trust, a number of which will be primary care trusts.
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