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2 July 2009 : Column 390W—continued
Cancer: Health Services
Dr. Tony Wright: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps his Department is taking to ensure that the NHS meets the deadline of December 2009 for the implementation of National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence guidance on improving supportive and palliative care for adults with cancer. [283737]
Ann Keen: The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence published guidance on supportive and palliative care for adults with cancer in March 2004. The National Cancer Action Team is working closely with cancer networks to monitor and support the implementation of this guidance by the end of December 2009. Plans for the implementation of this guidance are now in place in every cancer network, and it is expected to be fully implemented by the December 2009 deadline.
Cancer: Research
Mr. Maples: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what funding his Department allocated to research into (a) cancer and (b) ovarian cancer in the last five years. [281329]
Gillian Merron: The most recent available information in respect of the departmental and national health service expenditure on cancer research is shown in the following table.
| £ million | |
The Medical Research Council and other research councils funded by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills also invest significantly in cancer research. Comparable information in relation to ovarian cancer research is not held centrally.
Over the last 10 years, the main part of the Department’s research and development budget has been allocated to and managed by national health service organisations. Those organisations have accounted for their use of the allocations they have received from the Department in an annual research and development report. The reports identify total, aggregated expenditure on national priority areas, including cancer. They do not provide details of research into particular cancer sites.
The National Cancer Research Institute, a United Kingdom wide partnership between Government, charities and industry, makes cancer research information available online via the International Cancer Research Portfolio database at:
Details of current departmental and Medical Research Council site-specific cancer research can be found through this database.
Cardiovascular System: Screening
Sandra Gidley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what progress has been made in developing (a) a national identity and (b) an information strategy for his Department’s vascular checks programme. [282969]
Ann Keen: An identity for the NHS Health Check programme working under the NHS brand has been developed to support the promotion of the NHS Health Check programme. Identity guidelines are available at:
Nationally produced NHS Health Check information materials are being developed and made available to primary care trusts. The Department has worked with key stakeholders to develop and test the information leaflet to be sent out with invitations for the check or with a confirmation of an appointment; this has been placed in the Library.
A section of the NHS Choices website:
and a national NHS Health Check telephone helpline (0845 850 9850) have been set up to provide further information to people invited for a NHS Health Check.
Dental Services
Tom Brake: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimate he has made of the number of appointments with dentists offering an NHS service which have been made in each region in each month of the last two years. [283192]
Ann Keen: The information requested is not collected.
However information is available on the number of patients seen by a national health service dentist in the previous 24 months in England in Table Dl, Annex 3 of the NHS Dental Statistics, Quarter 3: 31 December 2008 report. Information is available at quarterly intervals, from 31 March 2006 to 31 December 2008, and is provided at primary care trust and strategic health authority level.
This report has already been placed in the Library. It is also available on the NHS Information Centre website at:
Tom Brake: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many requests for appointments with dentists offering an NHS service in each region have been refused on the basis that the dental practice had used its allocation of NHS funding in each month of the last two years. [283198]
Ann Keen: The information requested is not collected.
Dental Services: Fees and Charges
Norman Lamb: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many people have made claims under the NHS Low Income Scheme in respect of NHS dental charges in each of the last five years; and how much has been paid out from the scheme in each such year. [283445]
Ann Keen: Patients who make an application to the National Health Service Low Income Scheme and who are assessed as qualifying for help with NHS charges receive a certificate which entitles them to free NHS dental treatment or a partial reduction in their liability to pay charges, according to their individual circumstances.
Patients may qualify for free NHS dental treatment on a number of grounds, including being in receipt of one of a number of specified benefits or allowances or qualifying for assistance under the NHS Low Income Scheme. Information is not available centrally on the number of courses of dental treatment provided to
patients who claim an entitlement under the NHS Low Income Scheme in particular, and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
Dental Services: North West
Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of access to NHS dentistry in (a) Merseyside and (b) Crosby constituency. [283182]
Ann Keen: Information is not available in the format requested.
Information on the number of patients seen in the most recent 24-month period is available in Table D3 of Annex 3 of the NHS Dental Statistics for England, Quarter 3, 31 December 2008 report. Information is provided at quarterly intervals from 31 March 2006 to 31 December 2008. This report, published on 21 May 2009, has already been placed in the Library and is also available on the Information Centre for health and social care website at:
The numbers of dentists with national health service 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. This report, published on 21 August 2008, has already been placed in the Library and is also on the Information Centre for health and social care website at:
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, introduced on 1 April 2006. 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.
Workforce figures relate to headcounts and do not differentiate between full-time and part-time dentists, nor do they account for the fact that some dentists may do more NHS work than others.
Information in both reports is provided by primary care trust (PCT) and strategic health authority (SHA) but is not available by constituency. They are based on the PCT boundaries which came into effect on 1 October 2006.
All 10 SHAs have set themselves the aim of providing access to NHS dentistry for all who seek it by March 2011 at the latest.
We are supporting PCTs to meet this aim with extra resources—an 11 per cent. uplift in our dental funding allocations for 2008-09, and a further 8.5 per cent, uplift in total funds for 2009-10, which takes the total available for dental allocations to £2,257 million (net of patient charge income).
We have also set up an expanded national dental access programme, headed by Dr. Mike Warburton, an experienced clinician and manager, to support managers and clinicians to rapidly expand services where needed.
The report of the Independent Review of Dentistry in England, published on 22 June, recommends a series of further actions to support access and quality. Piloting of the recommendations will begin from this autumn.
Drugs: Misuse
Norman Lamb: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many hospital admissions there were for diagnosis code (a) F11.0, (b) F11.1, (c) F11.2, (d) F11.3, (e) F11.4, (f) F11.5, (g) F11.6, (h) F11.7, (i) F11.8 and (j) F11.9 for (i) males and (ii) females aged (A) under 14, (B) 14 to 17 and (C) 18 years and over in (1) each region and (2) each primary care trust in each of the last five years. [283176]
Gillian Merron [holding answer 1 July 2009]: The information is shown in a table which has been placed in the Library.
On advice from the NHS Information Centre for health and social care (Information Centre) data by primary care trust (PCT) have not been given; instead data have been given by strategic health authority (SHA). This is because the small number of patients at PCT level requires that all of the data for the 14 to 17 age group and the majority of the 18 and over age group would have to be suppressed, to prevent any identification of individuals, which means that the data which could be supplied would be meaningless.
Additionally, the Information Centre has advised that SHA data be used instead of Government Office Region (GOR) data. SHAs have very similar boundaries to GOR, with the exception of South East Coast SHA and South Central SHA, which are together aggregated to South East GOR. It should be noted that after 2005-06 the SHA configurations changed, with the 28 SHAs merging to form 10 larger SHAs.
The number of admissions does not represent the number of patients as one patient may have been admitted more than once.
Drugs: Side Effects
Mr. Baron: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimate he has made of the number of adverse incidents associated with the use of medicines outside their licensed indication in the last 12 months. [283283]
Mr. Mike O'Brien: Reports of suspected adverse drug reactions (ADRs) are collected by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and Commission for Human Medicines (CHM) through the spontaneous reporting scheme; the Yellow Card Scheme. The scheme collects ADR reports from across the United Kingdom for all medicines, including those from prescriptions, over-the-counter and general retail sales. Reports are also received for herbal medicines and other unlicensed medicines.
In 2008, the MHRA received 25,375 UK spontaneous suspected ADR reports in total. It is not possible to estimate from the Yellow Card Scheme the exact number of people who suffer adverse reactions to drugs used outside their licensed indication since the MHRA’s database for adverse drug reactions does not differentiate between suspected ADRs for drugs used within or outside of their licensed indications for use.
Food Standards Agency: Public Appointments
Mike Penning: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what progress has been made in recruiting a new Chair of the Food Standards Agency. [283155]
Gillian Merron: The position of Chair of the Food Standards Agency is appointed jointly by the Secretary of State for Health and the Health Ministers in the devolved Administrations. The role was advertised in March 2009 for a period of four weeks. The application period closed on 14 April. The selection panel shortlisted the applications in May and interviewed candidates in June. Ministers considered the panel’s recommendations and agreed Lord Rooker as the preferred candidate.
My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State has invited the House of Commons Health Select Committee to scrutinise the preferred candidate prior to appointment. The Committee are due to scrutinise the appointment on 6 July 2009.
The process, run by the Appointments Commission, is regulated by the Commissioner for Public Appointments and has been conducted in accordance with the Commissioner’s Code of Practice for Public Appointments, involving an independent assessor at all stages, including the shortlist and interview panel.
Health Hazards: Aerials
Mr. Leigh: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what recent research his Department has evaluated on the potential effects on health of mobile telephone masts; and if he will make a statement. [283253]
Gillian Merron: The independently managed Mobile Telecommunications and Health Research (MTHR) programme, jointly funded by Government and industry has supported a number of studies into the possible health effects of radio frequency technology relating both to mobile telephone masts and hand-held mobile phones. The MTHR programme published its first report in September 2007. None of the 23 individual studies reported under this programme to date demonstrates that biological or adverse health effects are produced by radio frequency exposure from mobile phones or telecommunications base stations (masts). Ongoing studies include a case control study of cancer incidence in early childhood and proximity to mobile phone base stations.
The MTHR programme management committee recognised that some concerns still remain and proposed some additional work. Further studies in this second phase are under way. Details of all MTHR projects can be found on the MTHR website at:
The Health Protection Agency's (HPA's) Radiation Protection Division keeps the relevant research publications under continual review largely through its independent Advisory Group on Non-ionising Radiation (AGNIR). Information on AGNIR can be found at:
www.hpa.org.uk/web/HPAweb&;HPAwebStandard/HPAweb_C/1195733801791
The HPA provides advice on electromagnetic fields and health to Government and the general public at:
www.hpa.org.uk/webw/HPAweb&;Page& HPAwebAutoListName/Page/1158934607786?p=l158934607786
Heart Diseases: Medical Equipment
Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will have discussions with the Equality and Human Rights Commission on the provision of oxygen cylinders and the transportation of medical equipment free of charge for those with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease who are travelling by air. [283170]
Ann Keen: There are no current plans to do so. Although specific arrangements are available on request within the national health service to support patients who require oxygen in multiple locations, including holidays within England, there are no imposed arrangements to support the transportation by patients of their own oxygen and medical equipment by air. Each airline has its own regulations about whether they allow patients to take their own oxygen cylinders or medical equipment on board; or whether the airline will supply the equipment (usually at a fee). Before considering flying, those with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease who require provision of oxygen should also consider consulting their general practitioner about their fitness to fly.
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