§ Mr. BaronTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what waiting-time information he collates on consultant referrals to pain management services. [140575]
§ Mr. Hutton[holding answer 1 December 2003]The Department does not collect waiting time information on referral from consultant to pain management service.
The Department does collect waiting time information on written referral from general practitioner to first out-patient appointment with a pain management consultant, and for patients waiting for elective admission where the main specialty is pain management. Latest published information for England on these two areas is shown in the tables.
Patients waiting for 1st consultant out-patient appointment following G(D)P referral: England: Quarter 2 2003–04:Provider based Not yet seen at end of quarter who have been waiting (weeks)
13 to < 17 859 17 to < 21 261 21 to < 26 0 26 and over 0 Source:
Department of Health form QM08.
Patients waiting for elective in-patient admission and elective in-patient admission events: England: Quarter 2 2003–04:
Provider based
Patients waiting for admission by months waiting
Admission type
Total number of patients waiting
for admission
Less than 3 months
3–5 months
6–8 months
9–11 months
Ordinary 264 155 79 27 3 Day case 6,921 4,752 1,523 535 111
§ Mr. Hutton[holding answer 1 December 2003]Management of much of the research supported by national health service research and development 317W funding is devolved and expenditure at project level is not held centrally by the Department. Details of on-going and recently completed research projects funded by, or of interest to, the NHS are available on the national research register at www.doh.gov.uk/research/nrr.htm.
Current projects include a £0.7 million trial of a primary-care based cognitive behavioural programme for low back pain, a £0.6 million study of the comparative effectiveness of topical and oral Ibuprofen for the treatment of chronic knee pain in older people, and a £0.6 million study of interventions for pain relief in patients with abdominal malignancy.