§ Mr. David Priceasked the Secretary of State for Social Services (1) if he will list in the Official Report the names and locations of specialist spinal units for each English health region; and how many beds each such unit provides;
(2) if he will list in the Official Report the number of beds dedicated to the treatment of spinal injuries per million of the population provided in each English health region.
§ Dr. VaughanI refer my hon. Friend to my reply to him on 20 November 1979—[Vol. 974, c.135]. Spinal units provide 444W a supra-regional service and they have no specific catchment area. It is not, therefore, possible to enumerate the total populations they serve and it would be inappropriate to express the number of beds in spinal units in terms of the population of individual health regions. Arrangements for transferring individual patients to a spinal unit are the responsibility of the doctor concerned.
Units are at:
Number of beds Hexham 20 Lodge Moor, Sheffield 64 Oswestry 50 Stoke Mandeville 156* Wakefield 35 Southport 38 * 33 beds are temporarily out of use. The provision of spinal units in the North of England is generally adequate. It is at present insufficient in the South but new units at RNOH Stanmore (NW Thames) and Odstock hospital, Salisbury (Wessex) are planned to come into operation in 1982 and 1983 when the position will improve. In the meantime, patients with spinal injuries will continue to be treated in existing spinal units and in other hospitals which I am confident will continue to offer medical and nursing care appropriate to their condition.