§ Mr. Anthony Grantasked the Secretary of State for Social Services how much capital expenditure, divided between expenditure on buildings or plant and on linen stocks, has been approved or actually spent since February 1980 by relevant hospital authorities on new hospital laundries or on major upgradings of existing hospital laundries; and how many individual laundry units this represents.
§ Sir George YoungIt is for health authorities to determine how their capital allocations are spent. Information on items of expenditure on laundry services since February 1980 is not held centrally.
§ Mr. Anthony Grantasked the Secretary of State for Social Services (1) what advice he has given to health authorities on the practical and financial advantages of using the services offered by the commercial laundry and textile rental industry as a viable alternative to the allocaton of public funds to new and existing National Health Service laundry facilities;
(2) if he will establish a permanent liaison body consisting of his Department acid the commercial laundry and textile rental industry for the purpose of monitoring proposals for hospital laundry developments and to assist health authorities in assessing the various alternative methods of fulfilling their requirements.
§ Sir George YoungI shall let my hon. Friend have a reply as soon as possible.
§ Mr. Anthony Grantasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what is the current annual cost of domestic cleaning and ancillary services in National Health Service buildings.
§ Sir George YoungThe following information has been derived from the annual accounts submitted by NHS authorities in England for the financial year 1979–80: 435W
1979–80 Expenditure £ million Hospital Services Other Health Services (Community health services, mass radiography, blood transfusion services etc.) Domestic services (Domestic and cleaning services) 308.6 13.2 Ancillary services (Portering, transport services, estate management, miscellaneous services and expenses) 683.2 65.6
§ Mr. Anthony Grantasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what is the current annual cost of catering services in National Health Service hospitals.
§ Sir George YoungIn 1979–80, the latest year for which information is available, the cost of catering services for staff and patients in hospitals in England, net of income received for the sale of meals, was £279 million.
§ Mr. Anthony Grantasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he is satisfied that the current monetary limit below which expenditure on hospital laundry projects need not be referred by the relevant hospital authorities to his Department is low enough to ensure that adequate opportunity is given to his Department to advise the authorities on such matters.
§ Dr. VaughanYes. Although the limit of delegated authority for expenditure on individual capital building
Notification of Infective Jaundice in Wales by County Country 1979 1980 1st Quarter 2nd Quarter 3rd Quarter 4th Quarter 1st Quarter 2nd Quarter Clwyd 2 2 1 2 3 2 Dyfed 0 1 0 0 3 1 Gwent 3 4 3 3 4 2 Gwynedd 0 1 0 1 1 1 Mid Glamorgan 8 2 0 2 3 3 Powys 0 0 1 0 1 1 South Glamorgan 2 1 3 4 3 7 West Glamorgan 0 0 0 0 3 4 Total 15 11 8 12 21 21 Source: Office of Population Censuses and Surveys
Some additional information is available from blood tests carried out by the Public Health Laboratory Service. This relates only to blood tests which its laboratories perform and is by no means comprehensive. It may also include blood tests on people who turn out to be carriers, but who may not be clinically jaundiced or ill. These figures provide only a general indication of trends and the figures for Hepatitis A and Hepatitis B for Wales are shown in the table below.
436W
Hepatitis A Hepatitis B 1st Quarter 1979 1 6 2nd Quarter 1979 0 13 3rd Quarter 1979 0 9 4th Quarter 1979 0 12 schemes is £2 million, the Department consults the health authorities on schemes of lesser value where there is seen to be any special need.