Skin Diseases (Hansard, 8 June 2004)

§ Baroness Andrews
My Lords—

Noble Lords
Hear, hear.

§ Baroness Andrews
My Lords, I am grateful to noble Lords for their support.
We have developed several initiatives to improve skin disease services. In particular, we have funded the Action On Dermatology programme. New drugs for skin disease have been referred to the National Institute for Clinical Excellence. Between September 1997 and December 2003, consultant numbers in dermatology increased by 35 per cent.

§ Baroness Finlay of Llandaff
My Lords, I must declare an interest, having had a long association with dermatology and being a member of the all-party parliamentary group. I thank the Minister for her reply and apologise that she has had to work so hard on health issues today. I certainly recognise the importance of the Action On programme and the increase in consultant numbers. However, the Government now have the GMS contract for general practice. Given that 10 per cent of the population suffer from eczema conditions and 80 per cent of adolescents have acne, some of them so seriously that they are driven to suicide, there is a huge need for having skin disease represented in the quality framework for primary care, so that there is adequate education of the primary care team. The National Service Framework for Long Term Conditions seems to have omitted inflammatory skin disease from its long list of conditions that need ongoing care. Does the Minister intend to make sure that those two small omissions will be rectified?

§ Baroness Andrews
My Lords, they are not small omissions in that creating a national service framework is a huge undertaking, which is why we only ever do one a year and is why we are currently preparing one for children. We may consider one on dermatology in future, but these exercises are major challenges to capacity in the health service and have good outcomes when they work. Regarding GPs, the best news that I could give the noble Baroness is that 104 GPs, 35 nurses and one combined service have opted to become GPs with special interests in dermatology, which is encouraging. It is also significant that that represents more interest than has been shown for any other specialism. I hope that that 142 will spread because, the noble Baroness is right. The incidence of skin disease is extremely high and we may not have taken it seriously enough in some ways.

§ Lord Clement-Jones
My Lords, after that good news, will the Minister confirm that the omission of inflammatory skin diseases from the White Paper to which the noble Baroness, Lady Finlay, referred does not mean that those skin diseases will not be included in the establishment of chronic disease management clinics? Will those clinics also have the function of dealing with inflammatory skin diseases, which constitute something like the fourth highest chronic disease in the country?

§ Baroness Andrews
My Lords, I simply cannot give the noble Lord the answer to that. I shall have to write to him. As he says, it would seem likely that they would, given that inflammatory skin disease is a chronic condition—although not necessarily life-threatening. However, I shall certainly find out and write to him.

§ Baroness Masham of Ilton
My Lords, I declare an interest as president of the Psoriasis Association. Does the Minister feel that the waiting lists are adequate for people with skin problems, given that some parts of the country, including north Wales and the West Country, are very short of dermatologists?

§ Baroness Andrews
My Lords, let me give more good news: consultant numbers have increased by 35 per cent. Interestingly, the number of doctors in training has also increased by 32 per cent, so we have a rosier picture in terms of recruitment and waiting times. No patient is waiting more than 12 months for admission to hospital—there were 74 in 1997. In March 1997 there were almost 29,000 patients waiting more than 13 weeks for an outpatient appointment following GP referral. Now there are only 2,652. Waiting lists are coming down, particularly for skin cancer, where 98 per cent of people are seen by a consultant within two weeks of being referred by a GP. So there is some genuinely good news on waiting times.