§ Mr. Knoxasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what steps he has taken to develop facilities for bone marrow transplantation following the report of the working group on bone marrow transplantations chaired by Sir Douglas Black.
§ Mr. Kenneth ClarkeWe have been carefully considering how to provide more facilities throughout the country for bone marrow transplant treatment—BMT— 453W ever since we received the report of the working group on BMT chaired by Sir Douglas Black. Since the Black working group reported in July 1982, the facilities needed to undertake BMT outside London have developed considerably. However, the established centres in London hospitals continue to provide the majority of BMT for the country and those hospitals will have to provide the bulk of the national service for some time. Present facilities are falling tragically short of the growing demand. As a next step. therefore, we have decided to provide a further £150,000 in the current financial year, equivalent to £500,000 in subsequent years, to the hospitals concerned to enable them to carry out more transplant treatments.
The Black report advised that BMT facilities should be developed for the future on a national basis with four or five centres to cover the country. The NHS supra regional services advisory group, chaired by Mr. Tony Driver, the chairman of South-West Thames regional health authority, has however now recommended that, in the light of developments in BMT, there is a need for regional health authorities to consider providing their own service. They feel that many of the constraints on the development of BMT which were present at the time of the Black report no longer apply. We have accepted this latest recommendation. I shall be discussing with regions urgently how they might proceed with these developments, taking account of other demands on resources.
We must all recognise that the pace of development of any new BMT services outside London will vary according to local judgments of priority, and the new facilities will take time to build up to full capacity. It is for this reason that we are making additional resources available for London hospitals now as the most effective immediate measure.
§ Mr. Wainwrightasked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many patients for whom suitable donors had been arranged died whilst awaiting bone marrow transplants in 1980, 1981, 1982 and for the latest date available; and what was the average length of time waited.
§ Mr. Kenneth ClarkeThe information is not available.
§ Mr. Wainwrightasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will publish in the Official Report details of the units able to carry out bone marrow transplants within each regional health authority in England and Wales.
§ Mr. Kenneth ClarkeIn London there are bone marrow transplantation (BMT) facilities at the Hammersmith hospital, the Royal Marsden hospital, the Westminster childrens hospital, the Royal free hospital, the Hospital for Sick Children—Great Ormond street—and University College Hospital. Elsewhere in England and Wales, BMT has been carried out in Newcastle, Leeds, Sheffield, Oxford, Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester and Cardiff.