HC Deb 22 June 1998 vol 314 cc390-1W
Mr. Kemp

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps his Department is taking to increase public awareness of the dangers of skin cancer. [45800]

Mr. Boateng

Skin cancer is largely preventable and we are working closely with a wide range of public bodies, including the Health Education Authority, the Health and Safety Executive, the National Radiological Protection Board and the Meteorological Office to raise awareness of the sun's harmful effects. Other agencies such as the fashion and leisure industries are also involved in addressing issues of sun awareness, including making clothing that protects from the sun more easily available through high street retailers. Events which took place during Sun Awareness Week, from 1–7 June 1998, helped to raise the profile of these issues more widely in the media.

Mr. Kemp

To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many people(a) were treated for and (b) died of skin cancer in 1997–98. [45801]

Mr. Boateng

The information for in-patient treatment (including "day cases") for the latest financial year available, 1995–96, in England, is shown in Table 1 and is based on finished consultant episodes of treatment (FCEs), which represent the number of episodes of care under individual consultants. The same person may be counted more than once if they have more than one episode of care. Some skin cancers are excised by a general practitioner or in hospital outpatients and will not be counted.

The information for the number of people who died of skin cancer, for the latest calendar year available, 1996, in England is shown in Table 2.

Table 1: 1995–96 financial year—latest available figures for England
ICD-10 codes Primary diagnosis FCEs
C43 Malignant melanoma of the skin 7,684
C44 Other malignant neoplasms of the skin 38,960
Total 46,644

Note:

Data in this table are grossed for both coverage and unknown/invalid clinical data

Source:

Department of Health, Hospital Episode Statistics (HES)

Losses of cash and equipment in the National Health service (England)–1992–93 to 1996–97
£
1992–93 1993–94 1994–95 1995–96 1996–97
Losses of cash due to theft, fraud, arson, sabotage, neglect of duty or gross carelessness 181,710 109,585 28,558 813,145 487,741
Loss of equipment and property in store and in use, due to culpable causes eg. theft, fraud, arson or sabotage, neglect of duty or gross carelessness 2,110,781 1,447,846 985,387 1n/a 1n/a
1n/a—not available

Notes:

  1. 1. Losses of cash due to theft etc. are not separately identified by NHS trusts for the period 1992–93 to 1994–95
  2. 2. Loss of equipment and property in store was not separately identified for the period 1995–96 and 1996–97

Source:

  1. 1. Annual accounts of health authorities (1992–93 to 1996–97)
  2. 2. Annual accounts of Family Health Services Authorities (1992–93 to 1995–96)
  3. 3. Annual summarisation schedules of NHS trusts (1995–96 to 1996–97)