Dr Doug Naysmith
Doug's Parliamentary Questions
I have a particular interest in health, so sometimes a health charity or organisation will ask me to put a question to a Minister. Sometimes the questions I ask arise from problems experienced by my constituents. On other occasions, I just want to get a matter clarified and have the Minister's position put on the record.
Below are some of the questions I have asked recently, together with the answers. There is a certain format which has to be followed and we cannot just turn up say “What are you going to do about THIS, then?” We have to submit our oral questions a few days in advance, which has the advantage of allowing the Minister time to find out any relevant information we may need but the disadvantage that we cannot ask something very topical. There is no guarantee that there will be time for a particular question but, if there is and once the Minister has replied, the MP who asked the question can follow up with other questions and other MPs can come in too. For that reason, I have put the link to Hansard, so, if you are interested, you can see how the debate developed.
Prime Minister's Questions (PMQ) are a bit different. There is a ballot which determines who can ask a question and in which order. Only those who draw a high number will have much chance that their question will be reached and, once they have had an answer, they cannot come back to press for more information. We do not have to tell the Prime Minister what we will ask and so questions can be (and are) about anything even if it has only just happened. If you have watched PMQ you will have seen MPs bobbing up and down. These are MPs who have not been listed to ask a question and are trying to catch the Speaker’s eye so that they can ask a supplementary. When an announcement was made about Airbus, I "caught the Speaker's eye" and got to ask a question. I had a word with the Speaker before PMQ and told him how important Airbus was in , so he was looking out for me: it is not just a matter of chance.
WRITTEN QUESTIONS
Stoma and Urology
July 23rd 2008
Doug Naysmith: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to his Department's consultation of June 2008 on the proposed new arrangements for the provision of stoma and urology services and related services in primary care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that the provision of associated services supplied with single line items is maintained.
Reply awaited.
Stroke Care
July 22nd 2008
Doug Naysmith: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to his Department's consultation of June 2008 on the proposed new arrangements for the provision of stoma and urology services and related services in primary care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that the provision of associated services supplied with single line items is maintained.
Anne Keen: The latest audit round to take place, in 2006, showed that 196 hospitals in England have a stroke unit. This is 97 per cent. of all hospitals in England. All these hospitals have a consultant physician responsible for stroke.
In 2006, nearly all hospitals had facilities to scan the brain. Over 90 per cent. of stroke units providing acute care had access to brain imaging within 24 hours of admission.The National Stroke Strategy and the supporting Imaging Guide outline the characteristics of gold standard stroke services and provide useful information on how to implement the changes needed to achieve them.
Tuberculosis
July 16th 2008
Doug Naysmith: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what provision has been made in his Department's five-year research strategy for more effective drugs, diagnostics and vaccines for tuberculosis.
Gillian Merron: In 2005 there were 14.1 million cases of tuberculosis and 1.6 million deaths. The UK Government's 2007 International Development White Paper commits us to increasing funding for new drugs and vaccines.
This commitment is reinforced in the Department's new five year research strategy which calls for continued and increased support for product development partnerships to develop vaccines, diagnostics and drugs for HIV and AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis. The strategy is available on-line: http://www.dfid.gov.uk/research/newresearch.asp
Anti-depressant prescriptions
25th June 2008
Doug Naysmith: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many prescriptions of (a) individual benzodiazepine drugs and (b) individual antidepressants were dispensed in the community in 2007?
Dawn Primarolo: Benzodiazepine drugs are used to treat a variety of conditions and therefore appear in several different parts of the British National Formulary and are shown in table 1 as follows:
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