§ Rev. Martin Smythasked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many patients in England are supplied with oxygen by community pharmacists or through their own general practitioner; how many of these patients would be classified as requiring major therapy and how many would be classified as requiring only occasional use therapy; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. Kenneth Clarke"Major therapy" and "occasional use therapy" are not terms which are readily definable at the moment. However, a survey of prescribing in England during the first half of 1984 showed that 31,715 patients received oxygen, of whom 28,096 or about 89 per cent. used less than five cylinders a month—an average consumption of less than two hour a day. Of the remainder, only 865 or about 2–5 per cent., required more than 25 cylinders a month or an average of 10 hours or more a day. Whilst these figures give an indication of the current usage pattern of domiciliary oxygen, we do not have sufficient information about each patient's prescribed treatment to enable us to classify the type of therapy prescribed in each case.