§ Mr. Dobsonasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will make a statement on the current provision of speech therapy services in the National Health Service as compared to (a) the National Health Service provision in 1979, (b) the private sector provision (c) the population's need for speech therapy and (d) the provision in other industrialised countries.
§ Mr. Whitney[pursuant to his reply, 7 July 1986]: In 1984, the latest year for which information is available centrally, there were about 286,000 attendances by inpatients and 541,000 attendances by out-patients at speech therapy departments at National Health Service hospitals in England. These represent increases of 44 per cent. in the numbers of in-patient cases treated and 39 per cent. in the number of out-patient attendances since 1979. At 30 September 1984, there were 2,150 (whole-time equivalents) speech therapists employed by district health authorities in England. That represents an increase of 42 per cent. over the 1,510 (whole-time equivalents) employed in 1979.
There are no generally agreed criteria for measuring need for speech therapy and no firm figures to show the prevalence of speech impairment in the population. However, speech therapists continued to extend the services they offer and the conditions they treat. The figures provided above show the importance health authorities attach to the improvement of their speech therapy services.
There is no information held centrally on the provision of speech therapy services in the private sector or in other industrialised countries.