§ 62. Sir J. Langford-Holtasked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many patients are awaiting admission to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham, for open heart surgery; and what action she proposes to take about the 38 patients who have been waiting more than two years and the few who have been waiting since 1971.
§ Dr. Owen187, including some patients whose operations have been deferred for clinical reasons. It is for the West Midlands Regional Health106W Authority and the Birmingham Area Health Authority (Teaching) to consider whether any expansion of the facilities available for open heart surgery is necessary and when it can be achieved within the limited resources available to them
§ Sir J. Langford-Holtasked the Secretary of State for Social Services (1) why it is not possible to perform more than six open heart operations each week in the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham; and when, and to what level, she expects this number to be increased;
(2) when work was stopped on the extension to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham, which would have increased the hospital's capacity to carry on open heart surgery; and when work will begin again.
§ Dr. OwenThe availability of operating theatres and intensive therapy facilities limits the number of open heart operations that can be performed at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital to a maximum of six a week. The major development of the hospital, which cannot proceed in the present economic circumstances, included additional theatre and intensive therapy facilities, but these were planned to allow an expansion in surgery generally, not with a view to an increase in open heart surgery. There are at present no plans to increase facilities for open heart surgery.
§ Sir J. Langford-Holtasked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many patients each month die while waiting for open heart surgery at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham.
§ Dr. OwenLast year 14 people died while on the waiting list for open heart surgery at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital. Information about the causes of these deaths is not readily available.