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Written Answers to Questions
Monday 15 March 1993
HEALTH
Abortion
Mr. Alton : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what was the number of national health service funded agency abortions for each district health authority in England and Wales for the last year for which figures are available.
Mr. Sackville : Information on abortions by district health authority (DHA) of operation is not released for reasons of confidentiality. Statistics showing the number of abortions performed under national health service agency agreements (that is, abortions to NHS patients performed in non-NHS premises) by DHA of usual residence are given in the table.
Central receipt of the notification of dates when agency agreements come into effect, and when they are dissolved, can be subject to delay, and therefore these figures should be interpreted with caution. For this reason such statistics are not, at present, routinely released at the DHA level. However, a more timely system for reporting of agency agreements is now in place, and these figures will be published annually from 1992 onwards.
Number of abortions performed under NHS agency agreements<1> by
area of usual residence, England and Wales, 1991
Area of usual |Number of abortions
residence |performed under NHS
|agency agreements
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
England and Wales |9,197
England |9,190
Wales |7
Northern RHA |3
Hartlepool DHA |-
North Tees DHA |-
South Tees DHA |1
East Cumbria DHA |-
South Cumbria DHA |-
West Cumbria DHA |-
Darlington DHA |-
Durham DHA |-
North West Durham DHA |-
South West Durham DHA |-
Northumberland DHA |-
Gateshead DHA |-
Newcastle DHA |1
North Tyneside DHA |-
South Tyneside DHA |-
Sunderland DHA |1
Yorkshire RHA |529
Hull DHA |3
East Yorkshire DHA |-
Grimsby DHA |-
Scunthorpe DHA |-
Northallerton DHA |-
York DHA |2
Scarborough DHA |-
Harrogate DHA |-
Bradford DHA |-
Airedale DHA |-
Calderdale DHA |1
Huddersfield DHA |300
Dewsbury DHA |221
Wakefield DHA |1
Pontefract DHA |-
Leeds DHA |1
Trent RHA |86
North Derbyshire DHA |4
Southern Derbyshire DHA |2
Leicestershire DHA |69
North Lincolnshire DHA |1
South Lincolnshire DHA |2
Bassetlaw DHA |-
Central Nottinghamshire DHA |2
Nottingham DHA |2
Barnsley DHA |-
DoncasterDHA |1
Rotherham DHA |1
Sheffield DHA |2
East Anglia RHA |2
Cambridge DHA |-
Peterborough DHA |-
West Suffolk DHA |-
East Suffolk DHA |-
Norwich DHA |1
Great Yarmouth and Waveney DHA |-
West Norfolk and Wisbech DHA |-
Huntingdon DHA |1
North West Thames RHA |875
North Bedfordshire DHA |1
South Bedfordshire DHA |7
North Hertfordshire DHA |2
East Hertfordshire DHA |-
North West Hertfordshire DHA |3
South West Hertfordshire DHA |2
Barnet DHA |16
Harrow DHA |126
Hillingdon DHA |5
Hounslow and Spelthorne DHA |6
Ealing DHA |8
Riverside DHA |10
Parkside DHA |689
North East Thames RHA |39
Basildon and Thurrock DHA |-
Mid Essex DHA |-
North East Essex DHA |-
West Essex DHA |-
Southend DHA |1
Barking, Havering and Brentwood DHA |1
Hampstead DHA |13
City and Hackney DHA |2
Newham DHA |1
Tower Hamlets DHA |12
Enfield DHA |3
Haringey DHA |1
Redbridge DHA |-
Waltham Forest DHA |1
Bloomsbury and Islington DHA |4
South East Thames RHA |819
Brighton DHA |5
Eastbourne DHA |3
Hastings DHA |1
South East Kent DHA |-
Canterbury and Thanet DHA |1
Dartford and Gravesham DHA |1
Maidstone DHA |6
Medway DHA |17
Tunbridge Wells DHA |2
Bexley DHA |-
Greenwich DHA |2
Bromley DHA |2
West Lambeth DHA |720
Camberwell DHA |44
Lewisham and North Southwark DHA |15
South West Thames RHA |53
North West Surrey DHA |4
West Surrey and North East Hampshire DHA |5
South West Surrey DHA |-
Mid Surrey DHA |2
East Surrey DHA |3
Chichester DHA |2
Mid Downs DHA |3
Worthing DHA |3
Croydon DHA |2
Kingston and Esher DHA |-
Richmond, Twickenham and Roehampton DHA |1
Wandsworth DHA |22
Merton and Sutton DHA |6
Wessex RHA |622
East Dorset DHA |119
West Dorset DHA |30
Portsmouth and South East Hampshire DHA |82
Southampton and South West Hampshire DHA |102
Winchester DHA |53
Basingstoke and North Hampshire DHA |55
Salisbury DHA |28
Swindon DHA |63
Bath DHA |79
Isle of Wight DHA |11
Oxford RHA |415
East Berkshire DHA |8
West Berkshire DHA |10
Aylesbury Vale DHA |11
Wycombe DHA |-
Milton Keynes DHA |362
Kettering DHA |3
Northampton DHA |19
Oxfordshire DHA |2
South Western RHA |76
Bristol and Weston DHA |5
Frenchay DHA |2
Southmead DHA |42
Cornwall and Isles of Scilly DHA |2
Exeter DHA |1
North Devon DHA |-
Plymouth DHA |4
Torbay DHA |2
Cheltenham and District DHA |7
Gloucester DHA |6
Somerset DHA |5
West Midlands RHA |5,659
Bromsgrove and Redditch DHA |4
Herefordshire DHA |5
Kidderminster and District DHA |1
Worcester and District DHA |6
Shropshire DHA |2
Mid Staffordshire DHA |11
North Staffordshire DHA |2
South East Staffordshire DHA |6
South Warwickshire DHA |586
East Birmingham DHA |315
North Birmingham DHA |251
West Birmingham DHA |558
Coventry DHA |1,063
Dudley DHA |386
Sandwell DHA |518
Solihull DHA |134
Walsall DHA |13
Wolverhampton DHA |316
North East Warwickshire DHA |666
South Birmingham DHA |816
Mersey RHA |5
Chester DHA |-
Crewe DHA |-
Halton DHA |1
Macclesfield DHA |-
Warrington DHA |-
Liverpool DHA |-
St. Helens and Knowsley DHA |1
Southport and Formby DHA |-
South Sefton DHA |-
Wirral DHA |3
North Western RHA |7
Lancaster DHA |-
Blackpool, Wyre and Fylde DHA |-
Preston DHA |-
Blackburn, Hyndburn and Ribble Valley DHA |1
Burnley, Pendle and Rossendale DHA |-
West Lancashire DHA |1
Chorley and South Ribble DHA |-
Bolton DHA |1
Bury DHA |1
North Manchester DHA |-
Central Manchester DHA |1
South Manchester DHA |-
Oldham DHA |-
Rochdale DHA |1
Salford DHA |-
Stockport DHA |-
Tameside and Glossop DHA |-
Trafford DHA |1
Wigan DHA |-
Wales |7
Clwyd DHA |3
East Dyfed DHA |-
Pembrokeshire DHA |-
Gwent DHA |-
Gwynedd DHA |-
Mid Glamorgan DHA |2
Powys DHA |-
South Glamorgan DHA |2
West Glamorgan DHA |-
* Abortions to NHS patients performed in non-NHS premises:
RHA Regional health authority
DHA District health authority
Salmonella Poisoning
Mr. Campbell-Savours : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what information, in what form, other than purely statistical, has been published on salmonella poisoning outbreaks.
Mr. Sackville : The "Communicable Disease Report" produced by the Public Health Laboratory Service communicable disease surveillance centre, and the "PHLS/SVS Udate on Salmonella Infection", produced jointly by the Public Health Laboratory Service and the State Veterinary Service, provide background information on outbreaks of human Salmonellosis. Copies of both documents are available in the Library. Information may include, in the former publication, a detailed description of the outbreak and, in the latter, the type of premises where the food was prepared and the suspect vehicle of infection. Reports of outbreaks are also published in the scientific press, particularly if there is an aspect of the outbreak or the investigation that adds to the body of medical and/or scientific knowledge or where there are food hygiene lessons to be learned.
Mr. Campbell-Savours : To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what constraints exist on the Chief Medical Officer relating to his publication of data relating to salmonella poisoning outbreaks ; (2) how many cases of salmonella relating to eggs and egg products have been reported since 1988 ; and if he will publish the reports of the Chief Medical Officer on those cases in such a form as to exclude the names of individual patients.
Mr. Sackville : Investigations of individual cases of human salmonellosis are not usually undertaken as in such isolated instances it is rarely possible to determine a suspect vehicle of infection. However, data on general outbreaks of human salmonellosis (where two or more persons in more than one household experience a similar illness after eating the same food and where epidemiological evidence implicates the food as the source of the illness) is published in the Public Health Laboratory Service State Veterinary Service (PHLS-SVS) "Update on Salmonella Infection". The table shows the number of general outbreaks for the period 1988 to 1991 where eggs or products containing eggs have been identified by local investigators as being the suspect vehicle of infection. The figure for 1992 has not yet been published. No additional data are available to the Chief Medical Officer.
General outbreaks of human salmonellosis where egg or products containing eggs are the suspect vehicle of infection England and Wales 1988-91 Year |Number of outbreaks ------------------------------------------------------------ 1988 |34 1989 |41 1990 |50 1991 |52 Source: PHLS-SVS Update on Salmonella Infection.
Mr. Campbell-Savours : To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether she will provide information to
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technical advisers to the United Kingdom Egg Producers Association on matters relating to the effectiveness of agencies in the investigation of salmonella poisoning outbreaks.Mr. Sackville : We will consider any such request.
Mr. Campbell-Savours : To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether the numbers of reported cases of salmonella poisoning from eggs from 1988 to 1991 is in need of revision in terms of statistics or data details.
Mr. Sackville : Eggs or products containing eggs were reported as the suspect vehicle of infection in a number of outbreaks of salmonella food poisoning between 1988 and 1991. The identification of the suspect vehicle was made by the outbreak investigators on the basis of evidence available at the time of the outbreak. This data is therefore not open to revision.
Mr. Campbell-Savours : To ask the Secretary of State for Health if she will instruct those agencies responsible for the collection of data on outbreaks of salmonella food poisoning to publish details of such incidents as soon as possible after notification and investigation.
Mr. Sackville : We are considering this matter.
Benzodiazepines
Mr. Kevin Hughes : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what specific initiatives her Department has taken to find alternatives to treatment with benzodiazepines in accordance with paragraph C21 of "The Health of the Nation" ; and how self-help groups are being supported and encouraged to help reduce benzodiazepine dependency.
Dr. Mawhinney : Since 1982 there has been a steady reduction in the number of benzodiazepine prescriptions from 24.5 million to 15.7 million in 1991. Many services for people who wish to withdraw from tranquillisers are provided by locally-based self-help groups. The Government have funded the National Association of Mental Health (MIND), which runs self help groups throughout Great Britain for tranquilliser dependence, to compile a national directory of tranquilliser services.
Mr. Kevin Hughes : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps her Department is taking to ensure that, through the medical audit process, patients being treated with benzodiazepines for the first time are being prescribed these drugs for a maximum of two weeks.
Dr. Mawhinney : Detailed advice on the prescribing of benzodiazepines by the committee on the safety of medicines is given in the British National Formulary which is issued free to all doctors.
General practitioners, in conjunction with the medical audit advisory groups (MAAGs) which have been set up by family health service authorities, are being encouraged to address the issue of medical audit in regard to many aspects relating to their work, of which prescribing is one. The particular areas of prescribing to be identified are best left to individual MAAGs who can tailor medical audit to meet particular local needs or areas of concern.
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Mental Health Services
Mr. Kevin Hughes : To ask the Secretary of State for Health if she will list the measures that her Department has taken to ensure that information on mental health services is provided to people whose main language is not English.
Mr. Yeo : The Department allocates £500,000 each year to develop projects to improve access to health services for the black and ethnic minority community. The Department has funded a number of projects in different black and ethnic minority languages including projects in the mental health field.
Horton Hospital (Patient Death)
Ms Lynne : To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what steps her Department has taken on the issues raised by the case of Dr. Kypros Loucas ;
(2) what action her Department has taken following its receipt of the internal inquiry by Riverside health authority into the death of a patient at Horton hospital in 1990.
Mr. Yeo : I refer the hon. Member to the reply that I gave her and the hon. Member for Sheffield, Brightside (Mr. Blunkett) on 10 December 1992 at columns 781-82. It would not be appropriate to comment further pending any consideration of these matters by the General Medical Council.
Social Services (Discharge Arrangements)
Mrs. Dunwoody : To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what measures were taken to evaluate the feasibility of the joint discharge arrangements made by each social services department with its health authorities ;
(2) what assessment she has made of the extent of consultation between each social services department and its local health authorities on integrating arrangements for discharge from hospital into community care ; and what plans she has to monitor the effective implementation of these arrangements.
Mr. Yeo : To receive a special transitional grant for community care all local authorities were required to agree with the relevant health authorities arrangements for integrating assessment and hospital discharge arrangements and to submit a copy of the agreement under joint signatures to the Department. All 109 local authorities did so. Each agreement reflects local circumstances. The operation of joint discharge arrangements will be one area covered in the overall monitoring of the community care reforms.
Mrs. Dunwoody : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what arrangements have been made for public access to the written submissions on the integration of joint discharge arrangements between health authorities and social service departments.
Mr. Yeo : We have made it clear that authorities should publish details of these agreements in their community care plans.
Mrs. Dunwoody : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what advice has been given to primary care and hospital staff about the joint discharge arrangements between social services departments and health authorities.
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Mr. Yeo : Agreements have been reached locally and will reflect local circumstances. It is for the health and local authorities concerned to communicate these agreements to the staff who need to know about them.
Merit Awards
Ms Armstrong : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what is the Government's policy regarding recommendations for the new merit awards for 1993-94 resulting in pay rises of above 1.5 per cent. ; and if she will make a statement.
Dr. Mawhinney : Existing performance pay arrangements, including the merit or distinction award scheme for consultant medical and dental staff, will continue in the normal way. The value of distinction awards will increase by 1.5 per cent. from 1 April 1993. My right hon. Friend the Prime Minister announced in his reply to the hon. Member for Poole (Mr. Ward) on 12 February at column 838 that the Government had accepted the recommendation of the Doctors and Dentists Review Body for an increase in the number of distinction awards. We have now agreed with the medical and dental professions that there should be 178 new awards in 1993-94. As recommended by the review body this figure takes account of the increase in consultant numbers and of the agreement reached last year that postgraduate deans should be eligible to receive awards.
Domiciliary Care
Mrs. Wise : To ask the Secretary of State for Health if she will introduce regulations to require the providers of private domiciliary care to register with social services departments and to meet appropriate minimum requirements as to ensure protection for users of such provisions.
Mr. Yeo : I refer the hon. Member to the reply that I gave to the hon. Member for Bradford, West (Mr. Madden) on 22 October 1992 at column 371.
Nursing Homes
Mrs. Dunwoody : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what guidance has been given to local authorities to ensure that an individual's right to choose to be placed in residential or nursing home care is observed when assessed for community care needs.
Mr. Yeo : My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health has issued a statutory direction requiring local authorities to place someone to whom it decides to offer residential care in the accommodation of their choice, subject to practical conditions such as cost, availability and suitability. We have also made it clear that authorities should use their discretion in a way which respects users' and carers' wishes when arranging the provision of any community care service.
GP Remuneration
Mr. Devlin : To ask the Secretary of State for Health if she has reached a decision on general medical practitioner remuneration for 1993-94 ; and if she will make a statement.
Mrs. Virginia Bottomley : As part of his autumn statement, my right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the
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Exchequer announced that public sector pay settlements for the coming year will be restricted to no more than 1.5 per cent. In line with this, the intended average net income for general medical practitioners will be increased from £40,010 per GP in 1992-93 to £40,610 per GP on 1 April.I announced in reply to a question from my hon. Friend the Member for Hayes and Harlington (Mr. Dicks) on 3 December 1992 at column 319 that the health departments were to pursue other issues concerned with general medical practitioners' remuneration in 1993-94 directly with the profession. The two parties have now agreed the relevant factual evidence, and the profession has set out its views on all the outstanding issues. After giving careful consideration to the profession's views, Health Ministers have reached the following conclusions :
first, the level of practice expenses to be incorporated in fees and allowances for the average GP for 1993-94 should be £22,190. This includes an adjustment to take account of evidence that practice expenses in 1990-91, the first year of the new GP Contract, were substantially higher than the Doctors' and Dentists' Review Body (DDRB) had forecast.
secondly, that the normal rules applied by the DDRB when correcting for previous over or underpayments of remuneration should be applied as usual in 1993-94. We have noted that significantly more money was paid to the profession in 1990-91 and 1991-92 than was provided for by DDRB. We are committed to further discussions with the profession in the Autumn of 1993 on how these overpayments might be handled. Pending these discussions, we consider it only right and proper to begin some recovery in 1993-94 of the amounts outstanding. thirdly, we have asked officials to pursue with the profession their request for a substantial increase in the payment made to trainee general practitioners in respect of "out of hours" work, with a view to putting a joint submission to DDRB in the next pay round. fourthly, after taking account of the modest overdelivery of remuneration predicted for 1992-93, the decision to apply the normal recovery rules, and the 1.5 per cent. increase in the intended average net income, an increase in fees and allowances averaging 3.3 per cent. will be required to deliver the amount due to the profession in 1993-94. We have accepted the profession's proposal that this increase should be spread evenly across all fees and allowances.
My officials are today writing to Dr. Bogle, chairman of the general medical services committee of the British Medical Association, with the details of the decisions. A copy of that letter will be placed in the Library.
Medical Advisers
Sir Michael Grylls : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what measures are being taken to monitor the effect of family health service authority medical advisers ; and on what criteria their performance is determined.
Dr. Mawhinney : I refer my hon. Friend to the reply that I gave him on 10 March at column 619.
Stomacare Nurses
Mr. Campbell-Savours : To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what representations she has received on the means used by Messrs Danzac to influence stomacare nurses in the use of their applicances ;
(2) if she will set up an investigation into the methods used by Messrs Danzac to influence nurses to advise on the use of their products by ostomists.
Mr. Yeo : We have recently received representations from the Campaign for Impartial Stomacare (CIS) and AMCARE, a supplier of stomacare products. We have no evidence that sponsorship of national health service
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stomacare nurses has affected the exercise of their clinical judgment in prescribing suitable products. I have assured CIS that I will investigate any such allegations in individual cases.Limited List
Mr. Wareing : To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many representations she has received in respect of the extension of the limited list for medicines ; how many were favourable to the proposed changes ; and how many were unfavourable.
Dr. Mawhinney : We have received a number of representations about the extension of the selected list scheme, most of which have registered concern about various aspects of the new arrangements. In response, we have made it clear that the resources available to the national health service must be used as effectively as possible and that the select list scheme has already shown that it can exert downward pressure on the drugs bill without jeopardising patient care.
Mr. Wareing : To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what discussions she has had with the Family Planning Association in respect of the limited list affecting contraceptives ; and if she will make a statement ;
(2) what discussions she has had with the British Association of Dermatologists in respect of the limited list affecting skin products ; and if she will make a statement.
Dr. Mawhinney : None. Decisions on which drugs may no longer be prescribed under the national health service will be based on advice from the advisory committee on NHS drugs, which is free to seek any advice that it considers necessary for its review.
Mr. Wareing : To ask the Secretary of State for Health if she will make a statement on the future of the limited list for medicines.
Dr. Mawhinney : The selective list scheme is to continue and as announced in November its scope is being extended to drugs in 10 additional therapeutic categories.
Waiting Times
Mr. Alfred Morris : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what additional resources will be made available to health authorities to allow them to ensure that no patients are kept waiting for treatment until the new financial year if they are in priority need.
Mr. Sackville : The Government have invested an additional £2.5 billion in the national health service this year and patients who require urgent treatment will be given proper priority. The Government also plan to invest a further £1 billion for 1993-94 which is equivalent to a further 190,000 more in patients and day patients and 1 million extra patient contacts by community nurses.
Mr. Nicholas Winterton : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment she has made of the extent to which district health authorities have exhausted resources to fund other non-emergency treatment and operations for patients from non-fund holding practices for the remainder of the current financial year ; and what effect she forecasts this will have upon waiting lists and other objectives of the patients charter.
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Mr. Sackville : Regional health authorities are responsible for monitoring district health authorities. Where hospitals have completed their routine contracted work before the end of the financial year patients have been treated earlier than they would otherwise have been. Emergencies are not affected and urgent cases are given proper priority. Waiting times and patients charter guarantees remain unchanged.
Leishmaniasis
Mr. Hinchliffe : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what action she takes to safeguard against Leishmaniasis contamination in blood donations from service personnel who have served overseas.
Mr. Sackville : All service personnel returning home after the war in the Gulf, where the condition is endemic, were deferred from donating blood for 12 months. All donors are routinely questioned about foreign travels and any illnesses following that travel. Blood is not taken from potential donors with a history of clinically proven Leishmaniasis. This provides an adequate safeguard against the extremely low risk of transmitting the disease through a donor and there is no known case of its having been transmitted through blood transfusion in this country.
Oncologists
Ms Lynne : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what is the number of NHS consultant oncologist posts in England and Wales.
Dr. Mawhinney : At 30 September 1991 there were 31 whole-time equivalent oncologist posts in England and Wales.
Breast Cancer
Ms Lynne : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what is the number of consultant radiotherapists dedicated to treating women with breast cancer within the NHS in England and Wales.
Mr. Sackville : The number of consultant radiotherapists dedicated to treating women with breast cancer within the national health service in England and Wales is not known. This is because most consultant radiotherapists treat the full range of cancers. At 30 September 1991 the total number of consultant radiotherapists treating all cancers in the NHS in England and Wales was 212 whole-time equivalents.
Ms Lynne : To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many women with breast cancer are treated by cancer specialists in England and Wales per year ; and what comparable figures she has for France, Germany, Italy and the United States of America.
Mr. Sackville : This information is not held centrally. In 1987, the total number of newly diagnosed cases of malignant neoplasm of the female breast in England and Wales of all ages was 23,740. The treatment of breast cancer may require contributions from specialists in a number of medical fields, not all of whom would be cancer specialists.
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Ms Lynne : To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many women with breast cancer in England and Wales are treated by general physicians and radiotherapists and not referred to cancer specialists.
Mr. Sackville : This information is not held centrally. It is a matter for employing authorities to choose the optimum distribution between specialties of consultants in their hospitals in order to provide an appropriate service to their local population. The choice of treatment for individual patients is a matter for clinical judgment.
Community Care
Mr. Hinchliffe : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what role is envisaged for public sector community care provision after 1 April.
Mr. Yeo : The Government are committed to a mixed economy of care, with statutory authorities working alongside an expanding independent sector.
Dental Remuneration
Mr. Clapham : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what is the time scale for her response to the Bloomfield report on dental remuneration.
Dr. Mawhinney : Consultation on the Bloomfield report will continue at a determined and realistic pace. We will announce our proposals in due course.
Dental Treatment
Mr. Clapham : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what was the average cost to the patient of a course of dental treatment in 1979 ; and what is the cost in 1993 expressed as a proportion of the average adult income for both years.
Dr. Mawhinney : The average cost to a fee-paying patient of a course of dental treatment in 1979 was £6.37. The average cost to a fee- paying patient of a course of treatment in 1991-92, the latest year for which figures are available, was £21.15.
The cost of a course of dental treatment expressed as a proportion of the average adult yearly gross earnings was 0.001397 in 1979 and 0.001335 in 1992.
Care for the Elderly
Mr. Blunkett : To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what guidance she has given to district health authorities regarding the contracting out of continuing elderly care ; and if she will make a statement ;
(2) how many health authorities have contracted out the provision of continuing elderly care in the last year ; and if she will list them, stating the number of patients affected.
Mr. Yeo : In purchasing continuing care, health authorities are expected to consider the whole range of available services, including those in the independent sector. The extent of such provision, including any purchased from independent providers, is a matter for individual health authorities to determine in the light of local needs and priorities.
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Hospital Catering
Ms Ruddock : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what was the weekly average budget allocation per patient in hospital for breakfast, lunch, tea and supper on 1 January 1973, 1 January 1983 and 1 January 1993.
Mr. Sackville [holding answer 16 February 1993] : Information in the precise form requested is not collected centrally. However, provisional data derived from the annual financial returns of health authorities in England for 1991-92 (the latest year available) indicate the average provisions cost per patient day as £2.04 and the average total daily cost of meals per patient as £5.01. The latter figure includes the costs of provisions, staff and energy. Equivalent average costs in 1982 -83 were £1.24 and £2.55, respectively. Information for 1972-73 is not available.
NHS Staff
Mr. Raynsford : To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many (a) consultants, (b) other medical staff, (c) nurses, (d) ancillary staff, (e) administrators and (f) accountants were employed within the South East Thames region in each of the years from 1987 to 1992 ; and how many are estimated to be employed in the region in 1993, 1994 and 1995.
Dr. Mawhinney [pursuant to his replies, 27 October 1992, column 618 and 28 January 1993, column 814 :] The number of administrativeand clerical staff in the South East Thames region at 30 September 1991 was 10,800. The figure previously supplied was incorrect as it excluded those staff employed in national health service trusts.
HOUSE OF COMMONS
Standing Committees
Mr. Steen : To ask the Chairman of the Catering Committee if he will make a tea trolley available on the Committee Corridor for hon. Members serving on Standing Committees sitting in the afternoon and evening.
Mr. Colin Shepherd : The existing trolley service on the Committee corridor is to be replaced during the forthcoming Easter recess by a permanent coffee station sited in the Upper Waiting Hall. The hours of operation of this service have yet to be determined by the Director of Catering Services, but will undoubtedly take account of expected levels of demand throughout the day. The existing vending machine in the Upper Waiting Hall is due to be replaced by another machine offering fresh brew coffee.
World Development Movement (Exhibition)
Mr. Wells : To ask the Chairman of the Administration Committee if he has considered an application for an exhibition relating to the World Development Movement to be displayed in the Upper Waiting Hall.
Mr. Michael J. Martin : I understand that, under procedures agreed by the Administration Committee arrangements have been made for the exhibition to be held in the Upper Waiting Hall from 17 to 21 May 1993.
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Forests Forever (Exhibition)
Mrs. Peacock : To ask the Chairman of the Administration Committee if he has considered an application for an exhibition relating to Forests Forever to be displayed in the Upper Waiting Hall.
Mr. Michael J. Martin : I understand that, under procedures agreed by the Administration Committee arrangements have been made for the exhibition to be held in the Upper Waiting Hall from 24 to 28 May 1993.
Deprivation and Dementia (Exhibition)
Mr. Barry Jones : To ask the Chairman of the Administration Committee if he has considered an application for an exhibition relating to deprivation and dementia to be displayed in the Upper Waiting Hall.
Mr. Michael J. Martin : I understand that under procedures agreed by the Administration Committee arrangements have been made for the exhibition to be held in the Upper Waiting Hall from 26 to 30 April 1993.
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