§ Mr. CohenTo ask the Secretary of State for Health how much of the £129.5 million he made available in 1989–90 to the National Health Service for the prevention of HIV infection and the services related to HIV infection and AIDS has been made available to Waltham Forest district health authority; whether any of the money has gone to substantial upgrading of genito-urinary medicine services in Waltham Forest; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. MellorI am advised that Waltham Forest district health authority received £238,000 from North East Thames regional health authority's allocation of £16,655,000 for the prevention of HIV infection and the services related to HIV infection and AIDS. The district is reviewing the provision of genito-urinary medical services for its resident population which are currently provided by Tower Hamlets and Newham health authorities.
§ Mr. CohenTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what response he has had from Waltham Forest district health authority to his February letter advising them to provide details of all completed and planned developments in genito-urinary medicine services; when they published the relevant report; if he will make a copy of it available to the hon. Member for Leyton; whether the response is in accord with his comments prioritising such services during the debate on AIDS on 13 January; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. MellorI understand that Waltham Forest district health authority has sent the requested AIDS control report to North East Thames RHA, which is due to submit reports from all districts in the region to the Department at the end of July. A copy of the report can be obtained from the local health authority.
§ Mr. Alfred MorrisTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what information is available to him on the relative efficacy of medicines prescribed to people with AIDS or AIDS-related complex according to whether they are, or are not, able to afford the high protein and calorie diets recommended to them by their doctors; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. Mellor[holding answer 25 July 1989]: We are not aware of any scientific information relating the efficacy of drug therapies for AIDS or AIDS-related complex to the consumption of high-protein and calorie diets.
§ Mr. Alfred MorrisTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what information is available to him on the survival rate of people with AIDS or AIDS-related complex, analysed by level of income; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. Mellor[holding answer 25 July 1989]: We do not hold this information.
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§ Mr. Alfred MorrisTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what is his estimate of the average weekly cost of medicines prescribed to people with AIDS or AIDS-related complex.
§ Mr. Mellor[holding answer 25 July 1989]: People with HIV disease may be treated for a number of different illnesses with a number of different drugs. We do not have information in the Department on all the drugs administered to all people with AIDS or AIDS-related complex and cannot therefore provide an estimate of the average weekly cost per patient.
§ Mr. MarlowTo ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) to what extent foreign AIDS and drug dependency patients are treated by the Parkside health authority.
(2) why it took Parkside health authority over six weeks to reply to a letter from the hon. Member for Northampton, North, saying that no information was available.
§ Mr. MellorParkside health authority regrets the delay in replying to my hon. Friend's letter of 25 May which was occasioned by the need to check a number of potential sources of information within the authority. Information of this kind on patients' nationalities is not held centrally and could be extracted clerically from individual records only at disproportionate expense.