Asked by: Lord Black of Brentwood (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
Her Majesty's Government why data on the use of Guidance on Risk Assessment and Stroke Prevention for Atrial Fibrillation is no longer collected as part of the Medicines Optimisation Dashboard.
Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy
NHS England has advised that as only 22% of general practice surgeries use this tool, and there are charges to the National Health Service for doing so, it was decided the tool was not appropriate as a metric in the Medicines Optimisation Dashboard.
Asked by: Lord Black of Brentwood (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
Her Majesty's Government how many hospital admissions for acute anxiety have been recorded in each of the last five years for which figures are available.
Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy
The following table shows the number of finished admission episodes (FAEs) with a primary diagnosis of acute anxiety from 2011/12 to 2015/16.
Year | Sum of FAEs |
2011-12 | 8,662 |
2012-13 | 8,680 |
2013-14 | 9,293 |
2014-15 | 9,874 |
2015-16 | 10,199 |
Source: Hospital Episode Statistics, NHS Digital
Asked by: Lord Black of Brentwood (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
Her Majesty's Government how many diagnoses of HIV were made as a result of the admission of a patient to a hospital accident and emergency department in each of the last five for which figures are available.
Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy
It is not possible to identify HIV in the Hospital Episodes Statistics (HES) accident and emergency (A&E) Diagnosis scheme. A table showing unpublished data collected through the HIV and AIDS Reporting System with Public Health England, is attached due to the size of the data.
Asked by: Lord Black of Brentwood (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Prior of Brampton on 13 July 2016 (HL1005), whether the UK National Screening Committee has considered the timing of its review of the evidence for screening people aged 65 and over for atrial fibrillation; and whether there will be an opportunity for organisations to submit evidence to that review.
Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy
Where the UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) does not recommend screening for a particular condition, the evidence is reviewed again in three years as part of its regular review cycle. The next evidence review for atrial fibrillation is expected to commence in 2017/18.
If any new published peer reviewed evidence emerges before the upcoming review, which may change the current recommendation, individuals or organisations may alert the UK NSC to this.
Asked by: Lord Black of Brentwood (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what action they are taking to identify people with atrial fibrillation at high risk of stroke who are (1) not anticoagulated, or (2) not maintained in therapeutic range.
Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has produced guidance and quality standards on anticoagulation for people with atrial fibrillation. NHS England has identified improved management of atrial fibrillation as a priority for reducing premature mortality.
Tools are available that enable general practitioners (GPs) to monitor whether patients are in the therapeutic range or not. There are also incentives for GPs to ensure that atrial fibrillation patients receive appropriate anticoagulation.
NHS England continue to support and promote the use of an audit tool that enables GPs to search patients’ data in order to identify patients at a high risk of atrial fibrillation, and then review those patients’ treatment options. In practices that use the tool regularly, there has been an increase in high risk patients prescribed oral anticoagulants (from 61% to 68%), with a corresponding decrease in high risk patients prescribed antiplatelets, such as aspirin (from 28% to 21%).
Asked by: Lord Black of Brentwood (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Prior of Brampton on 13 June 2016 (HL459), whether the National Institute for Health Research project HTA-14/141/01 on screening strategies for atrial fibrillation is still expected to be published in spring 2017.
Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy
The researchers involved in National Institute for Health Research project HTA 14/141/01 are currently considering how to disseminate their findings most effectively. As a result, the project findings will not be available in spring 2017. Further information will be available when the publication timeline is clarified.
Asked by: Lord Black of Brentwood (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many Clinical Commissioning Groups have added pulse checking to GP- or pharmacy-enhanced services for people aged over 65.
Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy
This information is not held by the Department or NHS England, as general practice and pharmacy contracts do not mandate pulse checks as part of the existing enhanced services for people over 65.
In England, however, all local authorities are required to offer the NHS Health Check programme, with the large majority commissioning general practice to provide them on their behalf. Between 2014 and 2018, over 15 million people aged 40 – 74 are, have been or will be eligible for an NHS Health Check. The programme’s best practice guidance recommends that a pulse check is carried out as part of the process of taking a blood pressure reading and that those individuals who are found to have an irregular pulse rhythm should be referred for further investigation.
Asked by: Lord Black of Brentwood (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord O’Shaughnessy on 20 February (HL 5325), what is the percentage of overall new HIV infections classified as late diagnosis for each of the last five years.
Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy
A late HIV diagnosis is defined as having a CD4 cell count less than 350 cells/mm3 within three months (91 days) of diagnosis. The following table shows the percentage of HIV diagnoses classified as late among adults (aged 15 years and above) diagnosed in the United Kingdom for each of the last five years:
Year | HIV diagnosis (%) |
2011 | 48% |
2012 | 46% |
2013 | 42% |
2014 | 41% |
2015 | 39% |
Source: Official Statistics – HIV: annual data tables
Late diagnosis data for 2016 will be published in October 2017.
Asked by: Lord Black of Brentwood (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the last five years, how many new HIV diagnoses have been classified as "late diagnosis".
Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy
A late HIV diagnosis is defined as having a CD4 cell count less than 350 cells/mm3 within three months (91 days) of diagnosis.
The following table shows the number of adults (aged 15 years and above) diagnosed with a CD4 count less than 350 cells/mm3 within 91 days of diagnosis in the United Kingdom in 2011 - 2015.
The data for 2016 are due to be published in October 2017.
Year | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 |
Number with CD4 cell count less than 350 cells/mm3 | 2,624 | 2,449 | 2,132 | 2,115 | 1,958 |
Source: National HIV Surveillance data tables, 2016
Asked by: Lord Black of Brentwood (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many cases of hepatitis C have been diagnosed in each of the last five years for which figures are available; and how many of those were diagnosed in the Accident and Emergency department of a hospital.
Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy
Public Health England (PHE) receives laboratory reports of hepatitis C cases from England and these are shown, for the last five years where data is available, in the following table. This data can also be found in the attached report, Hepatitis C in the UK 2015 report.
PHE does not routinely collect information on cases of hepatitis C diagnosed in accident and emergency departments.
Laboratory reports of hepatitis C England, 2011 to 2015
Year | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 |
Total | 9,905 | 10,855 | 11,055 | 11,471 | 11,548 |
Source: Hepatitis C in the UK 2015 report