§ Mr. Dobsonasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will give (a) the number of people on National Health Service long-term oxygen therapy with oxygen cylinders on 1 December 1985, (b) the number of people on National Health Service long-term oxygen therapy with oxygen cylinders at the latest available date, (c) the number of people who were on National Health Service long-term oxygen therapy with oxygen cylinders on 1 December 1985 who have been transferred to National Health Service oxygen concentrators and, (d) the saving to date by the introduction of long-term oxygen therapy by oxygen concentrators.
§ Mrs. CurrieLong-term oxygen therapy is defined as the provision of oxygen for 15 hours or more a day for a prolonged period. Information on the number of patients142W receiving such therapy with oxygen cylinders and the numbers transferring to oxygen concentrators could be obtained only through detailed scrutiny of individual prescriptions at disproportionate cost.
In addition to patients receiving long-term oxygen therapy there are other patients, needing lesser amounts of oxygen, for whom oxygen concentrators provide a less expensive method of supply. It was estimated in 1985 that the transfer of patients from cylinders to concentrators would save some £2.5 million a year and the indications are that we are on course to achieve the sort of saving predicted.