§ Mr. Meacherasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will give the number and rate for England and Wales, of (a) intensive care places and special care places per 1,000 live births weighing under 2,500 g for each regional and district health authority and nationally and (b) intensive care places per 1,000 live births weighing under 1,500 g for each regional health authority and nationally giving (i) the number of nursing and midwifery staff, whole-time equivalent, per place, (ii) the number of medical staff, whole-time equivalent, per place, (iii) the number of sites in which the places are available within each district and region, (iv) the number of places for which the equipment funding was provided by sources other than the National Health Service and (v) the number of whole-time equivalent (a) nurses/widwives and (b) 700W medical staff per place provided by sources other than National Health Service funding for each year since 1979 to the latest available date.
§ Mrs. CurrieI am sorry I cannot give the hon. Member the information he seeks. Although statistics are routinely collected on the availability of cots in special care baby units, there has been no generally agreed definition of "intensive care" to enable the provision made for it, the related staffing levels or other details requested to be recorded separately.