§ Mrs. Renée Shortasked the Secretary of State for Social Services (1) what steps he is going to take to ensure that the incidence of tuberculosis amongst hospital medical staff is fully documented;
(2) what plans he has for making sure that hospital staff exposed to risks of contracting tuberculosis receive regular chest radiographs; and what provisions he will make for the purpose of setting up screening programmes for professional foreign visitors attached to National Health Service hospitals.
§ Mr. Kenneth Clarke[pursuant to the reply,28 November 1984, c. 532]: Guidance on the control of tuberculosis in National Health Service employees was issued to health authorities in 1978 on the advice of the Standing Medical Advisor)' Committee and the working part on the prevention of infection in clinical laboratories. This recommends that staff should have an X-ray and tuberculin test on entry into the NHS and for those at higher risk of exposure to tuberculosis an annual chest X-ray thereafter.
In 1982, we issued guidance on the provision of occupational health services for staff. I would expect these services to have established health records for each member of staff and for those records to record any incidence of tuberculosis, together with a note of chest X-rays, tuberculin testing and BCG vaccination.