HC Deb 12 December 1989 vol 163 cc619-22W
Mr. Cummings

To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what is the average period of time from testing and screening of women for(a) cervical cancer, and (b) breast cancer until the results are known in the Sunderland, Durham and Hartlepool area health authorities; and what is the comparable figure for the rest of the country;

(2) what is the average period of waiting for patients who are to receive radio therapy from the time of the results of the breast screening test and treatment in the Durham, Sunderland and Hartlepool area health authorities, and what is the comparable figure for the rest of the country.

Mrs. Virginia Bottomley

Information on the processing of cervical screening tests is not available in the form requested. Our guidance to health authorities states that laboratories must aim to send results to the doctor who submitted a smear within one month of receiving it. Laboratory processing times are monitored by the Department on a quarterly basis. The information collected relates only to those district health authorities (DHAs) which are failing to meet this one month target time. As at September 1989 (the latest data available) over 75 per cent. of DHAs were meeting this target. Laboratories in South West Durham and Hartlepool DHAs were taking eight and six weeks respectively to report on smears. I understand, however, that the December return is expected to show an improvement.

Information on the average time taken to notify women of the result of their screening test and of waiting for radiotherapy treatment under the breast screening programme is not collected centrally.

Mr. Beggs

To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will encourage his Department to initiate a call and re-call scheme for women of 40-plus years to test for ovarian cancer.

Mrs. Virginia Bottomley

It has yet to be demonstrated that such a scheme would lead to a reduction in mortality. The Department will keep this matter under review.

Mr. Cummings

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what resources are being made available to the Northern regional health authority to provide a mass mammogram screening service in the North-East.

Mr. Freeman

Northern regional health authority has received a total of £3,618,000 over the years 1987–88 to 1989–90 to introduce and run breast cancer screening by mammography. This represents both capital and revenue allocations. Additional revenue allocated recurrently in each of these three years was built into the authority's baseline for subsequent years. At the end of the three year implementation period the amount now built into the region's baseline is £1,531,000 at 1989–90 prices.

Mr. Cummings

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps he is taking to ensure that all women in the Northern region are invited to attend specialist breast screening units; what call and re-call systems have been set up on the Northern region to date; and in what respects these re-call systems are different from those in the rest of the country.

Mrs. Virginia Bottomley

Arrangements for inviting women age 50–64 in the Northern regional health authority (RHA) to attend for screening under the National Health Service breast screening programme are similar to those used elsewhere in the country: women in this age group who are registered with a general practitioner will be invited, using the national computer system, for a screening test every three years. Northern RHA has also financed health education programmes, public information and publicity through a variety of media to encourage women in its region to take up their screening invitations.

Mr. Cummings

To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether he has any plans to provide a mobile breast and cervical screening unit in the Durham, Sunderland and Hartlepool area health authorities; and if he will list the locations in the United Kingdom where such mobile units are operating.

Mrs. Virginia Bottomley

The decision to use mobile units to deliver the National Health Service breast screening service for women aged 50 to 64 years is a matter for regional health authorities to determine.

I understand that women in Sunderland will be invited to attend a static unit located at the Sunderland general hospital and that mobile units will be used to provide the service to women in Durham and Hartlepool. If the hon. Member requires any further information about the breast screening service in the Northern regional health authority he might contact Ms. Barbara Howe, the region's programme co-ordinator.

The table lists the district health authorities in England where mobile units are either in use or planned as part of those screening programmes operational as at 13 November 1989. A further 31 screening programmes are expected to become operational by March 1990 a number of which are expected to use mobile units.

Mobile screening units serving district health authorities as part of those screening programmes operational as at 13 November 1989
Screening programme District
Northern
Gateshead Durham South Tyneside

Screening programme District
Newcastle Newcastle
North Tyneside
Northumberland
North West Durham
Yorkshire
Huddersfield Calderdale
Dewsbury
Huddersfield
Hull Hull
East Yorkshire
Grimsby
Scunthorpe
York York
Scarborough
Northallerton
Trent
Nottingham Bassetlaw
Leicester Leicestershire
Sleaford North Lincolnshire
South Lincolnshire
East Anglian
Kings Lynn West Norfolk and Wisbech
Ipswich East Suffolk
West Suffolk
Great Yarmouth and Waveney (part)
Peterborough Peterborough
Norfolk Norwich
Great Yarmouth and Waveney (remainder)
North West Thames None
North East Thames
Epping Redbridge
Colchester Mid-Essex
Leytonstone (Whipps Cross) Waltham Forest
South East Thames
Canterbury Canterbury and Thanet
Lewes Brighton
South West Thames
Guildford Mid-Surrey
North West Surrey
South West Surrey
West Surrey and North East Hampshire
East Surrey
Worthing Worthing
Chichester
Mid-Downs
Wessex
Southampton Salisbury
Portsmouth Portsmouth and South East Hampshire (part)
Oxford
Aylesbury Aylesbury Vale
Northampton Northampton
High Wycombe Wycombe
Milton Keynes Milton Keynes
South Western
Truro Cornwall and Isles of Scilly
Bristol Southmead
Plymouth Plymouth
North Devon
West Midlands
Stoke-on-Trent Mid Staffordshire
South East Staffordshire
Coventry Rugby
South Warwickshire

Screening programme District
Solihull
Dudley Dudley
Wolverhampton
Walsall Walsall
Sandwell
Birmingham North Birmingham
East Birmingham
West Birmingham
Mersey None
North Western
Manchester North Manchester
Central Manchester
South Manchester

Screening of women aged 20 to 64 for cervical cancer is performed by general practitioners or at NHS clinics.

Information on the services in the other parts of the United Kingdom is the responsibility of my right hon. Friends the Secretaries of State for Wales and for Northern Ireland and my right hon. and learned Friend the Secretary of State for Scotland.