§ Mr. AshleyTo ask the Secretary of State for Health how many psychiatric consultants can communicate in sign language with deaf patients; and where they practice.
§ Mr. DorrellThis information is not available centrally.
§ Mr. AshleyTo ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list the services for which there is supra-regional funding and indicate those which provide services specifically related to deafness.
§ Mr. DorrellThe following services will be designated and funded as supra-regional services in 1991–92:
- Choriocarcinoma services
- Craniofacial services
- Heart, heart-lung and lung transplantation
- Liver transplantation
- Specialised liver services
- Neonatal and infant cardiac surgery
- Services for primary bone tumours
- Spinal injury units
- Treatment of retinoblastoma
- Treatment of arterio-venous malformations by stereotactic radiosurgery
- Psychiatric services for deaf people
The last-named service is the only one which is related specifically to deafness.
§ Mr. Tony LloydTo ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) if he will make a statement on the future provision of psychiatric services for the deaf presently provided at Whittingham hospital;
(2) what steps he is taking to resolve the financial position of psychiatric services for the deaf planned for Prestwich hospital.
§ Mr. AshleyTo ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list the representations he has received regarding the re-location of the department of psychiatry for the deaf at Whittingham hospital; and what response he has made.
§ Mr. DorrellI refer the right hon. and hon. Members to the reply I gave the hon. Member for Birmingham, Erdington (Mr. Corbett) on 26 March at column370.
551WWe have received 10 letters from hon. Members. Officials have also received correspondence from the consultant psychiatrist involved in the provision of the service, and from the principal national organisation representing deaf people.
§ Mr. AshleyTo ask the Secretary of State for Health how many psychiatric departments there are in the United Kingdom which specifically provide for profoundly deaf people and where specialists can communicate with deaf patients in sign language.
§ Mr. DorrellThere are psychiatric units which specifically provide for the needs of profoundly deaf people at Whittingham hospital near Preston and Springfield hospital in Wandsworth. It is open to psychiatric units to obtain sign language services where they are needed to communicate with deaf patients.
§ Mr. AshleyTo ask the Secretary of State for Health how many deaf people, reliant on sign language for communication, are(a) in-patients and (b) out-patients in psychiatric hospitals; and how many psychiatric hospitals have patients who are reliant on sign language.
§ Mr. DorrellThis information is not available centrally.