§ Mr. Ashleyasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what further progress has been made in the trial of the Swedish myolectric hand for children; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. Christopher Priceasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he can now report further progress on the trial of the Swedish myoelectric hand for children; and if he will make a further statement.
§ Mr. Critchleyasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what further progress he has now made in the trial of the Swedish myoelectric hand for children; and if he will make a further statement.
§ Mr. Alfred MorrisI am today placing in the Library an interim report which my Department has prepared on the progress of the trial so far.
The trial is now well under way. Twenty-three children have been fitted with the hand in England and Wales and four are being fitted in Scotland. It is still too soon to draw definitive conclusions from the interim report, but the indications are that the children who have been fitted are adapting to and accepting the hand quite well. While most seem to be obtaining psychological benefit, a minority appear to be deriving functional benefit from the hand. The children value the ability to use the hand without the need for a harness, because they can move freely and naturally and use the hand in any position.
The interim report shows that we have had to face serious problems over reliability of the hand. Initially, each child was, on average, experiencing a breakdown once every 22 days. Efforts to solve the problem, in association with the 894W suppliers, have led to an improvement. Nevertheless breakdowns still occur too frequently. On average, they now occur every 37 days.
The trial will continue to ensure the best possible evaluation of the hand and, if possible, to resolve more of the technical problems. Meanwhile, I agree with the recommendation in the interim report that the trial should be extended to include the next group of children to become eligible for the trial. My Department has prepared a list of potentially suitable children who will automatically be called for more detailed clinical assessment at about four years of age. This means that progressively, over the next year, we shall approximately double the number of children in the trial. We shall also ensure that these younger children do not pass beyond what Dr. Sörbye believes to be the optimum age for fitting.
Various clinical criteria dictate that the prosthesis cannot meet the needs of every child. I am, therefore, very concerned to achieve a wide range of options and particularly for the older children. To this end an intensive programme of research and development is under way.
Work on body-power mechanical hands is promising and we hope to have prototypes available for trial by the end of the year. At the same time, a British myoelectric hand in a larger child's size is now well advanced and again prototypes are expected by the end of the year.
We are strongly committed to maintaining the momentum of the programme. Our aim is further to improve the range and quality of artificial hands and arms for children. This will be pursued with urgency. I shall keep the programme under constant review and inform the House of further developments.