Asked by: Eric Ollerenshaw (Conservative - Lancaster and Fleetwood)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many (a) men, (b) women and (c) children were admitted to hospital for drug poisoning, showing ICD10 codes T36-T50 separately, at a four character level in 2014.
Answered by Jane Ellison
The information requested is attached. It provides a count of the number of finished admission episodes with a primary diagnosis of T36-T50 for male and female adults and children for the year 2013-14. Explanatory footnotes have also been provided.
It should be noted that this is not a count of patients as the same patient may have been admitted more than once in a year.
Asked by: Eric Ollerenshaw (Conservative - Lancaster and Fleetwood)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether the General Practice Research Database includes data on the prescribing of tranquillisers; and if he will use this database to calculate the number of patients with a long-term dependency on tranquillisers.
Answered by George Freeman
The CPRD GOLD primary care database (former GPRD) includes information about all prescriptions issued in primary care for a subset of approximately 8% of the United Kingdom population. This database has previously been used to study prescribing of anxiolytic, hypnotic and psychotropic medication, commonly referred to as tranquilisers.
It would be possible to use the database to estimate the number of patients in the UK with a long-term dependency on prescription tranquilisers. However, as dependence will not be systematically identified by general practitioners, expert clinician advice would also be required to develop a definition. This could be based on frequency of prescribing and medication strength but could also include clinical codes for medical conditions including indications for these products, drug dependency and substance abuse, if recorded.
This work would represent a research project and as such, a scientific protocol would need to be submitted to the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency’s Independent Scientific Advisory Committee for assessment and possible approval.
Even with such an approach, the rate of drug dependency in the population could only be estimated, and in order to assess whether this estimate was a true representation of the actual rate of drug dependency in this population, a validation study would be encouraged.
The Department is looking into the feasibility of commissioning further research on patterns of long-term prescription of dependency-forming medicines, including analyses of relevant prescribing data.
Asked by: Eric Ollerenshaw (Conservative - Lancaster and Fleetwood)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, whether there is a point of contact for members of the public who wish to help the Serious Fraud Office investigation into GlaxoSmithKline.
Answered by Robert Buckland
The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has a secure reporting mechanism, SFO Confidential, which can be accessed through its website.