Luciana Berger – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2014-06-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what (a) number and (b) proportion of adult cystic fibrosis centres in England have (i) reached and (ii) exceeded the maximum capacity of 250 patients recommended by the Cystic Fibrosis Trust in each of the last four years.

Norman Lamb

Information concerning the number of adult cystic fibrosis (CF) patients cared for by CF centres in England in each of the last four years is not available. This data has only been collected since the introduction of the tariff for CF services in 2011.

In the attached table we have provided the number and proportion of CF centres treating 250 patients or more in each of the last three years.

It should be noted that theStandards of Care, updated by CF Trust in 2011 does not state that 250 patients is the maximum number a CF centre should treat, but rather that when a centre reaches 250 patients, and anticipates that numbers will continue to rise, the development of alternative specialist centres should be considered.