Tuberculosis: Screening
Health
Written answers and statements, 22 October 2009
Doug Naysmith (Bristol North West, Labour)
To ask the Secretary of State for Health
(1) whether his Department has conducted recent research on the effectiveness of the port of entry screening programme for tuberculosis;
(2) what estimate he has made of the cost to his Department of operating the port of entry screening programme for tuberculosis in the last five years;
(3) how many cases of (a) active and (b) latent tuberculosis have been detected at port of entry screening for tuberculosis in the last five years.
Gillian Merron (Minister of State (Public Health), Department of Health; Lincoln, Labour)
The Department has not conducted research on the effectiveness of the port of entry screening programme for tuberculosis (TB).
The Department has not made an estimate of the cost of operating the port of entry screening programme for TB in the last five years.
The data on the number of cases on active and latent TB detected at port of entry screening in the last five years are not collected centrally.
The Health Protection Agency (HPA) receives data on cases classified as "possible active TB" from the Heathrow and Gatwick Health Control Units (HCUs) as reported on Port Form 103, which is how the medical inspector notifies the district to which the immigrant is going.
Data received by the HPA are shown in the following table:
| Number of PF 103 referrals | ||
| Period | Heathrow( 1) | Gatwick( 2) |
| 2004-05 | n/a | 15 |
| 2005-06 | 587 | 11 |
| 2006-07 | 590 | 16 |
| 2007-08 | 475 | 16 |
| 2008-09 | 421 | 1 |
| Sources: (1) Heathrow HCU annual report (2) Gatwick HCU annual report | ||
Annotations
Tartan Giant
Posted on 23 Oct 2009 11:27 am (Report this annotation)
The answers given illustrate how pathetic HMG is at even keeping track of inbound TB and what is going on.
1. It does not care about screening effectiveness
2. It does not care about the cost of the above
3. It does not care about collecting the data
IT DOES NOT CARE, and has shown it does not care. It's all it can do but wait for Annual Reports to tell them, when levered, what the devil is going on with inbound TB.
Ask Ms Merron how many xray units there are at LHR and how many at LGW!
Ask Ms Merron how many hours the unit is open at each airport! The answers are shocking
I know, but I bet she has not bothered to ask.