§ Mrs. Renée Shortasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what resources he is at present allocating for research, screening and counselling for sickle cell disease and thalassaemia and in which hospitals this work is being done.
§ Mrs. Currie[pursuant to her reply,5 March 1987, c. 678]: The Department is providing £7,300 for research at St. Bartholomew's hospital; £10,000 for the national haemoglobinopathy reference centre in Oxford; and about £110,000 through the South East Thames regional health authority, for the diagnosis of rare blood disorders at King's college hospital. The Medical Research Council, the main Government funded body for biomedical research, supports other work.
Screening and counselling services are provided by district health authorities which decide the resources to be devoted locally to these disorders in the light of local 482W needs and competing priorities. Information about hospitals in which services are provided is not collected centrally.
Grants, currently of £15,000 each, are also made to the Sickle Cell Society and the Organisation for Sickle Cell Anaemia Research.