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Cancer: Health Services

Volume 507: debated on Wednesday 17 March 2010

To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many (a) elective and (b) emergency bed days were recorded in the Hospital Episodes Statistics database as having been accounted for by (i) haematological, (ii) gastrointestinal, (iii) bowel and (iv) lung cancer patients in (A) total, (B) each primary care trust and (C) each cancer network in each year since 1997-98; and what the cost was to the public purse of those bed days accounted for by patients with each type of cancer. (322244)

Information on the finished consultant episode bed days in which an elective and emergency admission took place and where the primary diagnosis was lung cancer, bowel cancer, upper gastrointestinal cancer and haematological cancer has been placed in the Library.

The information has been provided for primary care trusts in England for the years 1997-98 to 2008-09. This information is not available for cancer networks.

Information on costs associated with the bed days is not available.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many (a) admissions and (b) emergency admissions for (i) lung cancer, (ii) bowel cancer, (iii) upper gastrointestinal cancer and (iv) haematological cancer patients in (A) England, (B) each primary care trust and (C) each cancer network were recorded in the Hospital Episodes Statistics database in each of the last five years. (322245)

Information on the count of finished admission episodes (FAEs) and emergency admissions where the method of admission was emergency, and where the primary diagnosis was lung cancer, bowel cancer, upper gastrointestinal cancer and haematological cancer, has been placed in the Library.

The information has been provided for England and for primary care trusts in England for the years 2004-05 to 2008-09. Information is not available by cancer networks.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimate he made of expenditure on (a) cancer care, (b) lung cancer care, (c) bowel cancer care, (d) haematological cancer care and (e) upper gastrointestinal cancer care in (i) England, (ii) each cancer network area and (iii) each primary care trust in each of the last five years; how much was spent on (A) in-patient costs excluding those relating to surgery, (B) surgery including daycare and in-patient stays, (C) drugs including the cost of medicine preparation and administration, (D) outpatients including diagnostics, first and follow-up appointments, (E) radiotherapy, (F) specialist palliative care excluding that provided by the voluntary sector and (G) other costs in each of those years; and whether the methodology used to make those estimates was the same as that used to produce the chart on page 119 of his Department's Cancer Reform Strategy, published on 3 December 2007. (322272)

Tables showing estimated expenditure on cancer care, lung cancer care, lower gastro-intestinal cancer care, haematological cancer care and upper gastrointestinal cancer care in England, by each cancer network area and by each primary care trust (PCT), have been placed in the Library.

Information on cancer care has been provided for England and PCTs for the last five years. Information on cancer care has been provided for cancer networks from 2004-05, as this is the first year that the information became available. Information for cancer care by tumour site has been provided from 2006-07 as this is the first year that data was collected at sub-category level for a number of tumour types. Bowel cancer care is included in the lower gastro-intestinal cancer care data.

The information requested from questions A-G is not routinely available. The estimated total national health service spend on cancer care represented in the graph on page 119 of the “Cancer Reform Strategy” was an analysis commissioned specifically for inclusion in the Strategy. It was based on a wide range of data from 2005-06, and the sources of this data are quoted in the Strategy. An estimated NHS spend on cancer care under the same categories of that graph is not available for any other years, and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.