§ Mr. Crouchasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will make a statement regarding the adequacy of the facilities for treating adults and children suffering from kidney failure; and what additional resources in manpower, equipment and finance are required to bring this aspect of health treatment up to standard.
§ Mr. MoyleFacilities for the treatment of chronic renal failure are inadequate to meet the total need. In 1972 a Joint Committee of the Royal Colleges estimated that between 23–39 patients per million population per year, with an upper age limit of 55–60, might benefit from treatment by regular dialysis and/or transplantation. More recently the medical criteria for regarding patients as suitable for treatment have widened, thereby increasing the potential demand, and in 1975, 15 new patients per million population in England were accepted. In general those patients between the ages of 15 and 45 who are suitable for dialysis can be offered treatment, but outside that range not all patients can be treated.
It is not possible to give an accurate estimate of the resources that would be needed to meet total need. My Department is currently seeking to determine the costs of the various methods of treatment for chronic renal failure. I hope to make the results available later.
§ Mr. Crouchasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will give an assurance that there will no reduction in the allocation of resources for the treatment of people suffering from 569W kidney failure, notwithstanding any possible cuts in the allocation of money to the National Health Service.
§ Mr. MoyleIt is for health authorities to allocate resources to particular services, having regard to their own assessment of local needs and priorities, the total amount of finance available to them, and in the light of guidance on priorities given by the Department. We have no plans to advise health authorities to reduce services for chronic renal failure.
§ Mr. Churchillasked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many persons per million of the British population are receiving treatment for advanced kidney failure; what is the figure for other advanced countries; whether he is satisfied with this situation; and what steps he proposes to take.
§ Mr. MoyleFollowing is a table showing the number of kidney patients alive on treatment by dialysis and transplantation at 31st December 1975. These figures are produced by the European Dialysis and Transplant Association whose policy is not to publish statistics relating to countries below the European average.
Country Patients per million population Switzerland 136.1 Denmark 132.4 Japan 128.9 USA 127.0 Israel 117.0 Canada 103.0 Belgium 102.7 France 102.2 Australia 97.4 Netherlands 90.2 Federal Republic of Germany 87.7 Sweden 85.4 Italy 81.2 Finland 71.0 Norway 67.4 United Kingdom 62.0 EUROPE 56.6 I am naturally dissatisfied when any aspect of the National Health Service fails to meet the full need, and this particular area of the service is no exception. The extent to which facilities for dialysis can be increased is for health authorities to determine, having regard to the resources available to them, and in the light of guidance on priorities given by the Department. There is also a need for more transplants to take place, but this is governed by the availability of cadaver kidneys which remains insuffi- 570W cient. My Department will continue to encourage members of the public to become kidney donors, and as far as possible to encourage clinicians to be aware of the possibility of helping kidney patients in this way and to co-operate with transplant teams in the identification of potential donors.