§ Mrs. MayTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what is the average cost to the NHS of patients aged over 60 years. [7809]
§ Mr. BoatengFigures on Hospital and Community Health (HCHS) services are set out in the Department of Health, Government Expenditure plans, copies of which are available in the Library. People aged 65 and over account for some 41 per cent. of total HCHS spending although they make up 16 per cent. of the population. In 1994–95 it was estimated that £9,191 million of the total £22,237 million HCHS spending was devoted to people aged 65 and over.
§ Mrs. MayTo ask the Secretary of State for Health how many and what percentage of patients aged over 60 years use the NHS each year. [7812]
§ Mr. BoatengFigures for the estimated number of finished consultant episodes for people aged 60 and over are shown in the table. This does not include out-patient attendances, which are collected and published annually586W in "Outpatients and ward attenders for England", as these data are not broken down by age group. Information on the number of patients registered with General Practitioners on 1 April and 1 October of each year for people aged 65 and over is available in "General Medical Services Statistics for England and Wales". The latest version for 1 October 1996 is available in the Library.
Estimated number of Finished Consultant Episodes (FCEs), ordinary admissions and day cases combined, NHS hospitals,
England 1994–95
Number Total number of FCEs 10,550,213 Number of FCEs aged 60 and over 3,611,898 Percentage of total FCEs 34.2