§ Mr. Renée Shortasked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many National Health Service hospitals have purchased geriatric care services or provisions from private sector medical care establishments in each of the last seven years; and what costs have been incurred by the National Health Service each year as a result.
§ Mr. HayhoeContractual arrangements to provide services to NHS patients in private establishments are made between the establishment concerned and the contributing health authority, not with individual NHS hospitals. No information is held centrally about the costs of contractual arrangements by specialty.
Information on the number of authorities with contractual arrangements for geriatric care are given in the table.
Number of contracting health authorities* Year Number 1978 28 1979 27 1980 24 1981 24 1982 31 1983 28 1984 27 * District health authorities from 1982. Area health authorities prior to 1982.
§ Mrs. Renêe Shortasked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many private patients had appointments with consultants in National Health Service hospitals in the West Midlands region in each of the last seven years; what sums were paid to each authority in the region for the use of rooms for such consultations; and what was the length of the waiting lists for different categories of treatments in each authority each year during the same period.
§ Mr. HayhoeI am sorry I cannot give the hon. Member all the information she seeks. Some of it is not collected centrally. The hon. Member may wish to write to the chairman of the West Midlands regional health authority about information on sums paid to each authority in the region for the use of rooms for private consultations. I shall let the hon. Member have a reply to the rest of her question as soon as possible.