§ Mr. AingerTo ask the Secretary of State for Wales (1) if he will allocate sufficient resources to establish specialist breast care units in Wales; [7123]
(2) what plans he has to establish specialist breast care units in Wales in accordance with the recommendation of the Health Committee's third report of Session 1994–95, HC324, on breast cancer services. [7131]
§ Mr. RichardsRecommendations for the future provision of cancer services are set out in "A Policy Framework for Commissioning Cancer Services", a report by the chief medical officers of England and Wales. An expert advisory group has been established in Wales to assist health authorities to implement the recommendations of the report.
Health authorities will he expected to prioritise their resources to ensure that the health needs of their local population are met. In doing so, they will need to take into account the recommendations of the chief medical officers' report.
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§ Mrs. ClwydTo ask the Secretary of State for Wales if he will list the mortality rate figures for women with breast cancer aged 50 to 69 years in 1992 for each health authority in Wales.[5677]
§ Mr. RichardsThe information, provided by the Office for Population Censuses and Surveys, is given in the following table. As mortality rates for small subsets of the population can fluctuate considerably from year to year, an average based on five years' data has also been included.
Female breast cancer (ICD I74)—Deaths per 100,000 female residents aged 50 to 69 1992 1990–19941 Clwyd 99 93 East Dyfed 133 107 Pembrokeshire 129 95 Gwent 92 91 Gwynedd 64 87 Mid Glamorgan 85 90 Powys 88 103 South Glamorgan 78 81 West Glamorgan 100 103 1 Data for 1993 and 1994 are provisional. International Classification of Diseases, Injuries and Causes of Death (9th revision).
§ Mrs. ClwydTo ask the Secretary of State for Wales if he will list the age standardised mortality rate figures for women with breast cancer aged 50 to 69 years in Wales in(a) 1992 and (b) 1993. [5676]
§ Mr. RichardsIn Wales, age-standardised mortality rates for women aged 50 to 69 years with breast cancer—ICD9 code 174–are 99.7 in 1992 and 105.4 in 1993. Data for 1993 are provisional. Using data provided by OPCS, these standardised rates are worked out by adjusting the actual rates for Wales so that they are based on the age distribution within the relevant age group of women in England. For example, on the basis of the figure for 1993, for every 100 deaths from breast cancer in England there would be 105.4 in Wales if the proportions of women in each five-year age band were the same for the two countries.