§ Lord Colwynasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether the figures are now available for the total number of patients who underwent coronary artery by-pass surgery in each of the years from 1980 to 1983:
- (a) within the National Health Service;
- (b) under private arrangement.
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health and Social Security (Lord Glenarthur)The available information is held in the United Kingdom Cardiac Surgical Register of the Society of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgeons. The numbers of coronary artery by-pass operations reported to the register for the years 1980 to 1982 were:
1980 ֵ ֵ ֵ 4,859 1981 ֵ ֵ ֵ 5,951 1982 ֵ ֵ ֵ 6,766 Figures for 1983 are not yet available, and we have no information about the number of operations performed privately.
Due to a printing error in the Official Report the 1980 figure of 4,859 operations appeared as 4,589 in the Answer to my noble friend's Question on 6th May 1983 (Vol. 442, col. 326). I am sorry that this error was not noticed and corrected at the time.