§ Mr. Dobsonasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will give for 1983 and 1984 the number of ambulance service journeys carrying non-National Health Service patients and the total mileage involved.
§ Mr. WhitneyAmbulance services in England provided 141,000 non-National Health Service patient journeys in 1983 and 127,000 in 1984. In 1983 the corresponding mileage was 1,157,000. Central collection of information on the ambulance services' mileage was discontinued in 1984. A "patient journey" is the carriage of one patient in one direction. "Non-NHS patients" are all those in respect of whose transport a charge is made. They include persons carried on behalf of local authorities and other organisations as well as those private patients not entitled to free transport.