§ Mrs. BeckettTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what is the average cost of(a) treating a patient on the hospital waiting list, (b) providing an out-patient appointment, (c) treating a patient in an emergency in casualty, (d) treating an NHS patient in a private hospital under the last waiting list initiative, (e) a modern health centre suitable for general practitioners and their staff, (19 a heart bypass operation, (g) a hip replacement operation, (h) a cataract removal operation and (i) treating an asthma attack sufferer.
§ Mr. SackvilleInformation on the treatment costs of elective hospital admissions is not separately available. The average cost for all acute in-patient and day case episodes in 1992–93—the latest year for which information is available—was about £1,004, and for an out-patient attendance £59.
The available expenditure information does not distinguish patients treated in an emergency in accident and emergency departments from those returning for routine follow-up appointments.
Five hundred and twelve waiting list patients were treated in private facilities as part of the additional activity purchased in February and March 1994 under the last 1139W stage of the central waiting times fund, at an average cost of £1,552 each. For the details I refer the right hon. Member to the reply the then Minister for Health, my right hon. Friend the Member for Peterborough (Dr. Mawhinney), gave the hon. Member for Sheffield, Brightside (Mr Blunkett) on 14 June at columns 387–88. The treatments purchased included complex and costly procedures resulting in a relatively high average cost per case.
The provision of premises is a matter for general practitioners and the costs of providing them are not available centrally.
The information requested for the average cost of heart bypass, hip replacement and cataract removal operations, and of treating asthma attack sufferers, is not available centrally.