(2) how many people required treatment for pleural plaques in (a) Jarrow constituency, (b) South Tyneside, (c) the North East and (d) England in each year since 1997;
(3) how many people were diagnosed with mesothelioma in (a) Jarrow constituency, (b) South Tyneside, (c) the North East and (d) England in each year since 1997;
(4) how many people were diagnosed with pleural plaques in (a) Jarrow constituency, (b) South Tyneside, (c) the North East and (d) England in each year since 1997.
The information is not available in the format requested, as there are no data available at the constituency level. The following table shows the number of deaths in South Tyneside, the north-east and the United Kingdom, where asbestos was specified as the underlying cause, from 1997 to 2005, which are the latest figures available.
1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 20041 20051 South Tyneside 3 0 0 0 1 2 5 3 0 North East 10 8 10 13 14 20 19 19 15 England 55 49 55 57 68 94 96 83 107 1 Provisional Note: This excluding cases that also mention mesothelioma Source: Health and Safety Executive British Asbestosis Register
The following table shows the number of deaths from mesothelioma broken down in the same way.
1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 20041 20051 South Tyneside 15 12 8 15 18 9 8 15 10 North East 126 100 119 123 154 127 112 134 159 England 1,181 1,334 1,406 1,425 1,630 1,622 1,642 1,731 1,787 1 Provisional Source: Health and Safety Executive British Mesothelioma Register
The following table shows the number of admissions to hospital where the primary diagnosis refers to pleural plaques for residents of South Tyneside Primary Care Trust (PCT), North East Strategic Health Authority (SHA) (formerly Northumberland, Tyne and Wear SHA and County Durham and Tees Valley SHA, prior to 2006-07) and England for 1997-98 to 2006-07. This is not the same as how many people have required treatment for pleural plaques as not everyone in need of treatment is admitted to hospital. Also, the number of admissions does not necessarily represent the number of patients as a patient may be admitted to hospital more than once.
South Tyneside PCT North East SHA (Northumberland, Tyne and Wear SHA and County Durham and Tees Valley SHA prior to 2006-07) England 2006-07 * 33 570 2005-06 7 37 508 2004-05 6 30 433 2003-04 7 25 379 2002-03 * 22 357 2001-02 0 32 352 2000-01 * 23 337 1999-2000 * 26 283 1998-99 * 23 291 1997-98 * 15 245 Notes: 1. Small numbers: Due to reasons of confidentiality, figures between 1 and 5 have been suppressed and replaced with ‘*’ (an asterisk). Where it was possible to identify numbers from the total due to a single suppressed number in a row or column, an additional number (the next smallest) has been suppressed in order to protect patient confidentiality. 2. Quality of care: Data derived from Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) cannot be used in isolation to evaluate the quality of care provided by NHS trusts. There are many factors that can affect the outcome of treatment and it is beyond the scope of HES to adequately record and present all of these. 3. Ungrossed data: Figures have not been adjusted for shortfalls in data (i.e. the data are ungrossed). 4. Finished admission episodes: A finished admission episode is the first period of inpatient care under one consultant within one health care provider. Finished admission episodes are counted against the year in which the admission episode finishes. Please note that admissions do not represent the number of inpatients, as a person may have more than one admission within the year. 5. Primary diagnosis: The primary diagnosis is the first of up to 20 (14 from 2002-03 to 2006-07 and seven prior to 2002-03) diagnosis fields in the Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) data set and provides the main reason why the patient was in hospital. The ICD-10 codes used to identify Pleural plaques are: J92.0—Pleural plaque with presence of asbestos. J92.9—Pleural plaque without asbestos. 6. Number of episodes in which the patient had a (named) primary diagnosis: These figures represent the number of episodes where the diagnosis was recorded in the primary diagnosis field in a Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) record. 7. Data Quality: Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) are compiled from data sent by more than 300 NHS trusts and primary care trusts (PCTs) in England. Data are also received from a number of independent sector organisations for activity commissioned by the English NHS. The NHS Information Centre for health and social care liaises closely with these organisations to encourage submission of complete and valid data and seeks to minimise inaccuracies and the effect of missing and invalid data via HES processes. While this brings about improvement over time, some shortcomings remain. 8. Assessing growth through time: HES figures are available from 1989-90 onwards. During the years that these records have been collected by the NHS there have been ongoing improvements in quality and coverage. These improvements in information submitted by the NHS have been particularly marked in the earlier years and need to be borne in mind when analysing time series. Some of the increase in figures for later years (particularly 2006-07 onwards) may be due to the improvement in the coverage of independent sector activity. Changes in NHS practice also need to be borne in mind when analysing time series. For example, a number of procedures may now be undertaken in outpatient settings and may no longer be accounted for in the HES data. This may account for any reductions in activity over time.