Author: admin

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2015-10-27.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that young people exposed to unhealthily-thin models through advertisements are not subject to health problems relating to body image.

Alistair Burt

We want women, men, girls and boys to be confident and comfortable with their bodies and that means educating people and promoting a healthy, active lifestyle.

The Government recognises that poor body image is a common problem not only for young people but, according to the findings of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Body Image, more than half of the population. It is a factor in eating disorders and other mental health problems.

The Children and Young People’s Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (CYP IAPT) programme is already being expanded to cover additional areas of clinical practice, and extended so that by 2018 children and young people across all of England will have access to Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services which have been transformed by CYP IAPT and are providing evidence based psychotherapies coupled with session by session outcome monitoring. Additionally we are investing in community services for eating disorders in order for young people to receive more effective help faster and closer to home.

The Government has also worked with the Personal Social Health & Economic Association to produce guidance for teaching about body image using quality-assured resources, and with the National Citizen Service to produce resources on body image for young people aged 16-17 to develop their own active citizenship projects on this topic.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2015-10-27.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to recover the cost of treating patients who have received injuries from negligent cosmetic surgery from private providers from those providers.

Ben Gummer

Clinical commissioning groups have local arrangements in place to recover the costs from private healthcare providers.

The NHS Standard Contract requires all contractors of National Health Service care to hold and maintain adequate and appropriate indemnity arrangements. The commissioner issuing the contract should always ensure that sufficient indemnity/ insurance is in place.

Private healthcare providers are now able to use the Clinical Negligence Scheme for Trusts. Changes were made to secondary legislation to allow this to happen from April 2013.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2015-10-27.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many people have been treated for asbestos poisoning in the last five years.

Jane Ellison

The Department does not hold any data on the number of people treated for asbestos poisoning. The number of finished admission episodes (FAE) with a primary diagnosis of mesothelioma is shown in Table 1. Mesothelioma is a cancer that is closely associated with exposure to asbestos.

Table 1

Year	FAEs
2009-10	6,463
2010-11	6,488
2011-12	7,348
2012-13	7,711
2013-14	7,119

Notes:

1. Activity in English NHS Hospitals and English NHS commissioned activity in the independent sector
2. A finished admission episode (FAE) is the first period of inpatient care under one consultant within one healthcare provider. FAEs are counted against the year or month in which the admission episode finishes. Admissions do not represent the number of inpatients, as a person may have more than one admission within the period.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2015-10-27.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many people in what age groups NHS England has treated for squints in the last five years.

Alistair Burt

Individuals with squints may be treated in either primary care or secondary care.

It is not possible to identify those provided with glasses in primary care, funded by NHS England, to correct a squint.

It is possible to identify those who had a Finished Admission Episode in secondary care, funded by clinical commissioning groups, with a diagnosis of squint and received corrective surgery. The table below, provided by the Health and Social Care Information centre, shows the number of these procedures, broken down by age, carried out in England between 2009-10 and 2013-14. This will not capture other patients seen in secondary care on an outpatient basis where surgery was not necessary.

Age	200910	2010-11	2011-12	2012-13	2013-14
0-4	2,212	2,130	2,241	2,154	2,064
5-9	2,634	2,635	2,884	2,886	3,043
10-14	800	811	793	784	850
15-19	547	569	608	635	618
20-24	448	469	484	456	419
25-29	454	463	450	421	471
30-34	408	387	419	405	455
35-39	437	452	415	393	361
40-44	438	422	398	423	420
45-49	355	383	371	371	415
50-54	303	298	310	316	346
55-59	273	290	289	280	292
60-64	279	293	262	225	292
65-69	180	238	239	245	284
70-74	147	160	162	197	217
75-79	113	132	134	126	131
80+	87	73	88	94	96
Unknown	5	6	4	3	3
Total	10,120	10,211	10,551	10,414	10,777

Source: Hospital Episode Statistics (HES), Health and Social Care Information Centre

Note: Admissions do not represent the number of patients, as a person may have more than one admission within the period.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2015-10-27.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will make the meningitis W vaccine available to all people on the NHS.

Jane Ellison

Immunisation against meningococcal groups A, C, W and Y (MenACWY) was added to the national immunisation programme in August 2015 following advice from the expert body, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), in response to the rising number of meningococcal group W (MenW) cases.

The JCVI advised routinely offering MenACWY conjugate vaccine to teenagers aged around 14 years, and a catch-up programme to vaccinate all teenagers aged 14 to 18 years of age. This is because teenagers are the main carriers of the meningococcal bacteria, and so vaccinating this group should not only provide direct protection against MenACWY for teenagers who are at increased risk of meningococcal disease but, since teenagers are the main carriers, will also reduce meningococcal carriage rates and offer indirect protection for the rest of the population in the longer term.

The JCVI is keeping the situation under review, but has not advised vaccination of additional groups at this time. On the basis of this advice, we do not have any plans to offer MenACWY vaccination to other age groups at this time.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2015-10-27.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what plans he has to make activated charcoal available on the NHS to treat (a) alcoholism and (b) obesity.

Jane Ellison

It is for individual clinicians to make decisions on appropriate evidence based treatment together with the patient, taking into account any relevant National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidance.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2015-10-27.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many people in each age group have been diagnosed with epilepsy in each of the last five years.

Jane Ellison

Information concerning the number of people diagnosed with epilepsy on an annual basis is not collected. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence advises that epilepsy has been estimated to affect between 362,000 and 415,000 people in England and the incidence of epilepsy is estimated to be 50 per 100,000 per year.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2015-10-27.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to reduce the prevalence of trans fats in food.

Jane Ellison

There have been no discussions with the royal colleges on measures to reduce the prevalence of trans fats in food.

Population average trans fats intakes account for 0.6-0.7% of food energy, which is well within the public health recommendation of 2% of food energy, and within the World Health Organisation’s recommendation of 1%.

Voluntary action by industry has been successful in removing artificial trans fats from a range of processed products. Over 70% of the retail and manufacturing market has committed to remove or not use artificial trans fats.

The European Commission’s report on trans fats intakes across the European Union, which is due to be published in December 2015, will inform our future thinking on trans fats.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2015-10-27.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what recent discussions he has had with the Royal Colleges on measures to reduce the prevalence of trans fats in food.

Jane Ellison

There have been no discussions with the royal colleges on measures to reduce the prevalence of trans fats in food.

Population average trans fats intakes account for 0.6-0.7% of food energy, which is well within the public health recommendation of 2% of food energy, and within the World Health Organisation’s recommendation of 1%.

Voluntary action by industry has been successful in removing artificial trans fats from a range of processed products. Over 70% of the retail and manufacturing market has committed to remove or not use artificial trans fats.

The European Commission’s report on trans fats intakes across the European Union, which is due to be published in December 2015, will inform our future thinking on trans fats.