§ Mr. MorganTo ask the Secretary of State for Wales (1) what guidelines he has issued, and what proposals he has to issue further guidelines, to health authorities and general practitioner fund-holding practices in Wales concerning the implications for purchasers of hospital health care of statistically significant variations in death rates in or just after treatment; and if he will make a statement;
(2) what consultations he has had with the health authorities and hospital trusts in Wales in relation to the variations in performance in hospitals with respect to death rates during or just after hospital treatment;
(3) what representations he has received with respect to the publication of league tables in relation to variations between hospitals in death rates during or just after surgery and other treatments (a) with and (b) without standardisation for age and social condition of patient intake; and if he will make a statement;
(4) if he will publish figures indicating the gap between the highest and lowest death rate hospitals, with respect to death rates after (a) general surgery, (b) orthopaedic surgery and (c) other treatments, after standardising for age and social condition of the patient intake; and what proposals he has for improviong the performance of the hospitals with death rates related to treatment, that are markedly above average;
(5) what is the maximum differential gap in death rates between the lowest and highest death rate in Welsh hospitals following (a) general surgery, (b) orthopaedic surgery and (c) other treatments; and what proposals he has for improving the performance of these hospitals whose death rates after surgical treatment is higher than the norm.
§ Mr. Gwilym JonesI refer the hon. Gentleman to the reply I gave to his hon. Friend the Member for Alyn and Deeside (Mr. Jones) on 30 April 1993 at column589.