§ Mr. Cordleasked the Secretary of State for Social Services whether, in view of the observations of the World Health Organisation as to the viability of a foetus after 22 weeks of pregnancy, she will seek to amend Section 1(2) of the Infant Life (Preservation) Act 1929 to 590W more to be done and I am keeping the position under review.
§ Mr. Kilroy-Silkasked the Secretary of State for Social Services (1) what is the average waiting time for children with heart disorders for (a) cardiac catheterisation and (b) major heart surgery nationally in the North-West and in Liverpool, respectively;
(2) if the waiting time for children awaiting cardiac catheterisation and major heart surgery in the North-West and Liverpool has decreased in the last year; and, if so, by how much;
(3) how many children with congenital heart disorders are waiting for cardiac catheterisation; and how many are awaiting major heart surgery (a) nationally, (b) in the North-West and (c) in Liverpool.
§ Dr. OwenAverages are misleading as waiting times for treatment vary according to the circumstances of individual cases. Following are figures relating to the Royal Liverpool Children's Hospital, which is the main centre in the North-West for treating children for heart disorders, showing the numbers of children waiting and the times they had waited on 31st March 1975 as compared with a year earlier:
numbers of children who were waiting for treatment on 21st May 1975 at the hospitals listed:
substitute a period of 22 weeks in place of the existing period of 28 weeks.
§ Dr. OwenThe World Health Organisation has not pronounced on the gestational age of viability. A meeting of its Expert Committee on Health Statistics convened in June 1974 to discuss a draft revision of the general structure of the 591W International Classification of Diseases (ICD) proposed the endorsement of the recommendations of a scientific group concerning definitions, terminology and format of statistical tables relating to the perinatal period.
The committee's report will be considered at the delegate conference of member countries of the World Health Organisation in September 1975 which is being convened to make firm recommendations for the ninth revision of the International Classification of Diseases to the World Health Assembly. It is likely that there will be useful discussions at this meeting indicating current international medical thinking in this area which I will wish to study.
The Government are concurrently considering a recommendation of the Committee on the Working of the Abortion Act that Section 1(2) of the Infant Life (Preservation) Act 1929 should be repealed.