§ Mr. BarronTo ask the Secretary of State for Health how many duplicate NHS numbers have been issued to date; if further duplicate numbers are being issued; what progress has been made towards correcting the duplicate 157W number problem and renumbering persons issued with duplicate numbers; what has been the total cost to date of the duplicate number problem; and what estimate he has made of the final cost.[3297]
§ Mr. HoramNational health service numbers issued by registrars of births and deaths are provisional until confirmed through health authorities on a patient's medical card.
Between 4 December 1995, when the new NHS number was introduced, and 18 October 1996, the latest date for which figures are available, 4,793 new NHS numbers were assigned by RBDs which were re-issued at a subsequent birth registration. This is approximately 1 per cent. of all registrations. Whenever an NHS number is erroneously re-issued, at least two registrations are affected; occasionally numbers have been re-issued more than once, thereby affecting three or more registrations.
Duplicate numbers continued to be issued at birth registration, but at a reduced rate. In the reply I gave the hon. Member for Ilford, South (Mr. Gapes) on 8 July, Official Report, column 14, it was confirmed that a study into the reasons for the issuing of duplicate numbers would be carried out. That study is now complete, and a copy of its final report is due to be placed in the Library shortly.
If a duplicate number is issued at birth registration, this is detected at the NHS central register. In this circumstance, the duplicated number is not used for either baby; both are issued with unique replacement NHS numbers. This also applies if more than two babies have been issued with the same number.
The cost to date to the new NHS number programme of addressing the issue of non-unique NHS numbers is £40,000; the expected final cost is £130,000.