HC Deb 26 July 1978 vol 954 cc807-8W
Mr. Nicholas Winterton

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many people have attended clinics in the USSR and Switzerland for treatment of the eye disease retinitis pigmentosa; and what arrangements are made for them to report in the United Kingdom the results of their treatment.

Mr. Moyle

Since all patients who have attended the Helmholtz Eye Diseases Research Institute in Moscow or the Opos Eye Clinic in Switzerland have done so privately I have no details of the numbers involved, nor could I impose any formal arrangements for results of their treatment to be reported to me. However, with regard to patients treated at the Opos Clinic, while I have no objective evidence that such treatment has been helpful, I have arranged to have inquiries made into certain individual cases which have been brought to my attention where there is apparent evidence of subjective improvement.