§ Mr. Dobsonasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what are the costs and benefits to the West Lambeth health authority arising from its agreement with the British United Provident Association concerning the new lithotripter at St. Thomas's hospital.
§ Mr. Kenneth ClarkeThe benefit is that the lithotripter will be available free of any capital or servicing cost to the National Health Service for treating an estimated 900 Health Service patients a year. The main direct costs will be those of replacing the electrodes used in the treatment, which has been estimated at an average of £210 for each treatment of an NHS patient, and of employing the staff to operate the machine. The latter is still under discussion but even so the overall cost seems likely to compare very favourably with that of treating the same patients by conventional surgery.