§ Mrs. CaltonTo ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what plans he has to publish information on waiting times for treatment of cancers not covered by NHS Cancer Plan targets before 2005; [157771]
(2) what progress has been made towards meeting the targets for cancer treatment in the NHS Cancer Plan. [157773]
§ Miss Melanie JohnsonThe primary purpose of the NHS Cancer Plan is to save more lives. Reducing waiting times is key to achieving this. The ultimate goal in the NHS Cancer Plan is to offer patients a maximum one month wait from an urgent referral for suspected cancer to the beginning of treatment. Where patients wait longer, this should be because of the needs of the diagnostic process or their personal choice, not because of in-built delays in the system of care. We hope to achieve this goal by 2008.
Current waiting times targets are milestones towards this. Data on achievement of current targets from urgent general practitioner referral to treatment for acute leukaemia, children's and testicular cancers and breast cancer and from diagnosis to treatment for breast cancer, are published quarterly on the Department's website for strategic health authorities and trusts, at: http://www.performance.doh.gov.uk/cancerwaits. Data on achievement of future cancer plan waiting times targets 1174W of one months from diagnosis to treatment and two months form urgent general practitioner referral to treatment for all cancers will be published once these targets have been implemented in 2005.
§ Mrs. CaltonTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment his Department has made of the incidence of melanoma by(a) age group and (b) strategic health authority. [157800]
§ Ruth KellyI have been asked to reply.
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician, who has been asked to reply.
Letter from John Pullinger to Mrs. Calton, dated 5 March 2004:
The latest year for which figures are available is 2000. The numbers and rates of newly diagnosed cases of melanoma of the skin by age group are published in 'Cancer statistics: registrations, England 2000. Series MB1 no.31. London: The Stationery Office, 2003' on the National Statistics website at: http://www.statistics.gov.uk/StatBase/Product.asp?vlnk = 8843&Pos = 4&ColRank = l&Rank = 240 This publication shows that 17 per cent. of melanoma cases occurred in young adults (15–39 years) compared with 4 per cent. of all cancers.
Directly age standardised registration rates of newly diagnosed cases of malignant melanoma of the skin2 in England, by strategic health authority, for 2000 are given in the table.
1175W
Directly age standardised1 rates per 100,000 population of newly diagnosed cases of malignant melanoma of the skin2 in England, by strategic health authority,2000 Strategic health authority Males Females England 9.7 11.2 Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire 10.8 11.4 Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire 9.3 10.0 Essex 9.6 13.5 North West London 6.6 5.5 North Central London 15.1 15.1 North East London 7.2 4.4 South East London 8.3 8.8 South West London 10.0 12.7 Northumberland, Tyne and Wear 6.4 8.9 County Durham and Tees Valley 9.3 10.9 North and East Yorkshire and Northern Lincolnshire 4.3 7.2 West Yorkshire 7.8 9.5 Cumbria and Lancashire 11.3 11.2 Greater Manchester 8.1 11.0 Cheshire and Merseyside 7.5 13.9 Thames Valley 14.8 17.1 Hampshire and Isle of Wight 12.2 15.7 Kent and Medway 8.4 7.8 Surrey and Sussex 10 0 13.8 Avon. Gloucestershire and Wiltshire 11.7 13.1 South West Peninsula 17.7 15.8 Dorset and Somerset 15.2 17.2 South Yorkshire 6.9 8.3 Trent 8.6 9.5 Leicestershire, Northamptonshire and Rutland 9.9 11.3
Directly age standardised1 rates per 100,000 population of newly diagnosed cases of malignant melanoma of the skin2 in England, by strategic health authority, 2000 Strategic health authority Males Females Shropshire and Staffordshire 7.0 9.3 Birmingham and the Black Country 7.5 8.7 Coventry, Warwickshire, Herefordshire and Worcestershire 11.1 10.3 1 Using the European standard population 2 International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10) code C43. Source: Office for National Statistics