Written question asked by Patsy Calton (Liberal Democrat) on Thursday, 3 July 2003, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 10 July 2003. It was answered by Stephen Ladyman (Labour) on Thursday, 10 July 2003 on behalf of the Department of Health.

Dept of Health

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what measures are in place to prevent discrimination in the treatment of older people with breast cancer.

Answer: Mrs. Calton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what measures are in place to prevent discrimination in the treatment of older people with breast cancer. [124372] Dr. Ladyman: Standard One of the older people's national service framework (NSF) sets out the general commitment to address age discrimination in access to health and social care. The requirement to provide treatment and care on the basis of clinical need, and not age alone, applies equally to the treatment of breast cancer. Since the publication of the NSF in March 2001, significant progress has been made in starting to tackle age discrimination and there is a now a wider appreciation and awareness across health and social care of age discrimination as an issue. In November last year, we released a computerised information tool to enable those implementing the NSF at local level to compare their treatment rates in 10 different hospital procedures, in relation to different age groups. This included information on the local age related intervention rates of breast cancer treatment.

Secondary information

Type: Written question
Reference: 124372; 408 c1001W;408 c999W
Session: 2002-03
Subjects: Access Age Breast cancer Equality Health services Diseases Medical treatments
Link: View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk