HC Deb 27 November 1990 vol 181 cc365-6W
Dame Jill Knight

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps he is taking to ensure that general medical practitioners are aware that extra influenza vaccine has been made available to fulfil all needs of at risk patients.

Mr. Terry Davis

To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether his Department has obtained enough influenza vaccine to meet the demand from general practitioners; and what arrangements are being made to publicise the availability of this vaccine.

Mr. Dorrell

A number of steps have been taken to ensure an adequate supply of influenza vaccine. Over 3,600,000 doses of vaccine were made available this autumn. The Department has also arranged for the manufacture of a further 1 million doses which will be available from this week, providing a total supply of 45 per cent. more than last year.

Department of the Environment. The latest figures, for April 1990, are available in the Library. I understand that there are no estimates of the proportion of pensioners who live in sheltered dwellings.

Residents aged 65 and over in residential accommodation in England at 31 March 1989
Durham England
Homes for Elderly and Younger Physically Handicapped People 2,458 232,336
All Homes 2,469 235,703
Population aged 65 and over 93,201 7,522,568

Mr. Steinberg

To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many private registered homes, voluntary registered homes, and local authority homes for the elderly there were in(a) Durham county and (b) the United Kingdom in 1980, 1985 and for the latest available year; how many places these provided and how many residents there were in each of these years.

Mrs. Virginia Bottomley

The information available is given in the table. Data refer to homes catering primarily for people who are elderly or younger people who are physically handicapped. Data for these two groups were not collected separately for all of the years requested.

Information relating to Scotland is a matter for my right hon. and learned Friend the Secretary of State for Scotland and information for Northern Ireland and Wales is a matter for my right hon. Friends the Secretaries of State for Northern Ireland and for Wales.

The Department wrote to all family health services Authority general managers on 22 November informing them of the arrangements made to provide the further 1 million doses, a copy of which is available in the Library.