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Imigran

Mr. Redmond : To ask the Secretary of State for Health if the drug Imigran used for relief to migraine sufferers, is available on prescription in its (a) injection form and (b) tablet form ; and if she will make a statement.

Dr. Mawhinney : Both Imigran tablets and injections have been licensed and are available as prescription-only medicines.

Eye Tests

Mr. Kirkwood : To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) if she will publish the latest figures available showing (a) the average charge for private sight tests and (b) the uptake of private sight tests by the over-60s since restrictions on NHS tests were introduced ;

(2) if she will conduct a survey to find out the total number of private sight tests carried out for each year since restrictions on national health service tests were introduced ; and if she will make a statement.

Dr. Mawhinney : The Department collects information on national health service sight tests only. Other sight tests are private transactions. The optical profession conducts regular surveys on the total number of sight tests, both national health service and private. Their findings indicate that the number of sight tests has returned to 1987 levels--the last typical year before changes in the sight-testing arrangements were announced.

London Ambulance Service

Mr. Corbyn : To ask the Secretary of State for Health when she expects the proceedings of the board of the London ambulance service to be made public.

Mr. Sackville : The proceedings of the London Ambulance Service Board are not made public. Accountability is exercised through the South West Thames regional health authority whose proceedings are subject to the Public Bodies (Admission to Meetings) Act 1960.

Royal Northern Hospital

Mr. Corbyn : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what consultation she is proposing on the loss of wards in the Royal Northern hospital in Islington and Bloomsbury health authority.

Mr. Sackville : The Bloomsbury and Islington health authority consulted interested parties on its proposals to centralise the acute services in Islington on the Archway and St. Mary's sites of the Whittington hospital. Following Islington community health council (CHC) opposition to those proposals the matter was referred to Ministers.

The hon. Member, together with the hon. Member for Islington, South and Finsbury (Mr. Smith) and the CHC, met with my hon. Friend the then Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State on 5 February to discuss those proposals.

I subsequently wrote to the chairman of Bloomsbury and Islington health authority on 1 June, copying the letter to the hon. Member, stating that it would not be right in this case for Ministers to intervene to overturn the decision by local management.

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Chiropodists

Mr. Harvey : To ask the Secretary of State for Health if she will reconsider allowing privately trained and qualified chiropodists to work within the national health service ; and if she will make a statement.

Dr. Mawhinney : All people employed as chiropodists in the national health service must be state registered, whether or not they were privately trained. There are no plans to change this arrangement.

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Mr. Harvey : To ask the Secretary of State for Health if she will initiate a new comparison in the qualifications and working practices of private and national health service practising chiropodists ; and if she will make a statement.

Dr. Mawhinney : No. This would be a matter for the profession.

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