§ Mr. Michael McNair-Wilsonasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what consideration has been given to increasing the attendance allowance for patients on home dialysis to ensure that it covers the real cost of employing a nurse attendant.
§ Mr. NewtonA related proposal, that home dialysis patients should receive automatically the higher rate of attendance allowance, was put to us last year by Mrs. Elizabeth Ward of the Bristol Kidney Patients Association, and I met her to discuss it in November. I made the point that, uniquely, home dialysis at least twice weekly is already deemed to entail entitlement to the lower rate of attendance allowance, and that we did not believe that the case for going further had been made out, especially since 583W improved dialysis techniques have tended to reduce rather than increase the amount of time during which attendance is required.
The two rates of attendance allowance are intended to reflect a broad measure of appropriate help for those needing constant attention by day or by night, or both. They do not represent a specific item or items of expenditure; and, with over 450,000 allowances in payment, it would be impracticable to attempt to set individual rates according to individual circumstances.