§ Mr. Corbettasked the Secretary of State for Social Services whether he will publish in the Official Report the total amount of bad debts incurred by pay bed patients which were written off by 479W each of the 14 regional health authorities in the last three financial years for which figures are available.
§ Mr. MoyleHealth authorities accounts submitted to my Department show the total amount of bad debts and claims abandoned each year but the part of this total represented by pay bed patients is not separately identified. It is estimated that the total amount of pay bed debts written off in each of the last three years has been less than 1 per cent. of the total income recovered from private patients.