§ Mr. Harold Walkerasked the Secretary of State for Social Services (1) what is the number of persons suffering from chronic kidney disease who have been refused haemodialysis within the National Health Service during the last two years;
(2) what is the total number of sufferers from renal disease for whom home dialysis facilities would be available, if they were suitable for such treatment, at the present time; and how this breaks down, by region;
(3) what is the total number of patients for whom the National Health Service could provide haemodialysis;
(4) if he will appoint a committee of inquiry to look into the inadequacy and maldistribution of facilities for haemodialysis within the National Health Service.
§ Mr. AlisonI am not aware of any source of clinical statistics showing the proportion of patients for whom dialysis 127W is judged to be the appropriate form of treatment. The hon. Member has other Questions on the numbers so treated; whether existing equipment could be used for a greater number depends on clinical factors in the individual cases, and again I can give no figures. As regards development of services, I do not think an enquiry is called for. Hospital authorities must and do decide what proportion of their resources can be devoted to the provision of haemodialysis having regard to the competing claims of other parts of the hospital service.
§ Mr. Harold Walkerasked the Secretary of State for Social Services (1) how many kidney disease suffers are currently provided with facilities for home dialysis; and how this figure breaks down, by region;
(2) how many places are available in National Health Service hospitals in England and Wales for sufferers from chronic renal disease to receive haemodialysis; and what is the breakdown of these figures, by region.
§ Mr. AlisonThe latest available figures about numbers under treatment and hospital places are as follows:
Region Hospital Places Numbers of Patients on Home Dialysis (September, 1971) Newcastle 38 41 Leeds 24 46 Sheffield 15 39 East Anglia 12 2 North West Metropolitan 41 72 North East Metropolitan 22 59 South East Metropolitan 28 72 South West Metropolitan 35 57 Oxford 6 59 South Western 24 45 Birmingham 32 49 Manchester 13 40 Liverpool 6 28 Wessex 10 24 Total 306 633 In the hospital places there were 434 patients on dialysis. In addition some 200 patients have kidney transplants each year.
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§ Mr. Harold Walkerasked the Secretary of State for Social Services (1) if he will inquire into the reasons why National Health Service hospital authorities refuse haemodialysis to sufferers from chronic kidney disease if they have been previously given this treatment at the National Kidney Centre;
(2) if he will either rescind the Ministry of Health Circular of 25th January 1967, H/A 190/14, which advised National Health Service hospital authorities not to send patients for treatment to the National Kidney Centre, a non-profit making trust, or issue an amendment stating that this should not apply in such cases as that of Mr. Zahoor Ahmed where the authority is unwilling or unable to provide treatment itself, and that the advice in the circular should not be interpreted as meaning that former patients of the National Kidney Trust should be barred from subsequent treatment for chronic kidney disease within the National Health Service;
(3) why National Health Service hospital authorities have been advised not to send patients suffering from chronic kidney disease and needing haemodialysis to the National Kidney Centre, a nonprofit making trust, even where they could not provide such treatment themselves because of inadequate facilities, and where the patient's life might therefore be at risk.
§ Mr. AlisonExpert medical advice has consistently been that treatment for chronic renal failure, whether in hospital or at home, should be based on hospitals with full supporting facilities. The National Kidney Centre is not such a hospital, and it would therefore be inconsistent with the advice received to arrange for National Health Service patients to be maintained by the Centre. Former patients of the Centre are not debarred from subsequent treatment under the National Health Service: it is for the clinicians to whom they are referred in the National Health Service to consider on the merits of the case whether to accept them for treatment. This is a clinical matter in which I cannot intervene.
§ Mr. Harold Walkerasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what are the arrangements for informing persons 129W suffering from chronic renal disease and in need of haemodialysis of the hospital authorities which have facilities available when none is available within the hospital region where the patient resides; and if he will inform Mr. Zahoor Ahmed, about whom the hon. Member for Doncaster has been in correspondence, of the authorities who can provide the treatment which he receives.
§ Mr. AlisonThis is a matter for the responsible clinician. it would not be appropriate for me to intervene in regard to the arrangements required for the treatment of Mr. Zahoor Ahmed since this is for his present medical advisers.
§ Mr. Harold Walkerasked the Secretary of State for Social Services how much he estimates has been saved to National Health Service funds from the refusal of National Health Service hospital authorities to provide haemodialysis for Mr. Zahoor Ahmed, about whom the hon. Member for Doncaster has been in correspondence with him.
§ Mr. AlisonSince resources would have been utilised to the benefit of other patients the question of any saving does not arise.