§ Mr. Ashleyasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if his Department has made any estimate of the cost of providing all children who could benefit from it with dual purpose powered wheelchairs.
§ Mr. MajorWe have no central records to indicate how many children could benefit from dual purpose powered wheelchairs and therefore an estimate of cost has not been possible.
§ Mr. Ashleyasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what has been the average cost per wheelchair provided by his Department over the last 10 years.
§ Mr. MajorSince the Department supplies a wide variety of wheelchairs, at greatly differing prices, an average cost figure would not be helpful. The average purchase prices, excluding administrative costs, of four typical models of non-powered wheelchairs and one typical powered wheelchair over the last ten years are as follows:
Year non-powered £
powered £
1978 80.32 223.00 1979 94.85 295.00 1980 101.44 340.00 1981 117.43 364.00 1982 111.37 None purchased 1983 115.86 380.00 1984 110.24 437.00 1985 118.43 458.00 1986 117.79 466.00 1987 129.72 468.00
§ Mr. Ashleyasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what is the current cost of the wheelchair service; and for how many people it provides wheelchairs.
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§ Mr. MajorThe current annual budget for the purchase and maintenance of wheelchairs, excluding administrative costs, is a little under £27 million. It is estimated that at 31 December 1986 there were 435,000 people making use of the service.
§ Mr. Ashleyasked the Secretary of State for Social Services when he intends to make a decision on the recommendation of the McColl report that there should be dual purpose powered wheelchairs.
§ Mr. MajorI am unable usefully to add to my reply to the right hon. Member on 29 January at column370 when I indicated that we are still considering this major issue. I will announce our conclusions as soon as they are reached.
§ Mr. Ashleyasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what is the estimated cost of a dual purpose powered wheelchair for a child; and what is the expected number of years usage such a chair would provide.
§ Mr. MajorWheelchair manufacturers' catalogues indicate that the retail cost of a dual purpose powered wheelchair for a child ranges between £800 and £3,000, largely depending on the degree of sophistication that is built into the wheelchair. The life of such a wheelchair is heavily dependent on the nature of its use and the age and development of the child, but we would expect that typically such equipment, with adequate maintenance, would remain serviceable for between three and five years.
§ Mr. Ashleyasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what representations he has received from the Muscular Dystrophy Society urging the provision of dual purpose powered wheelchairs; and what response he made.
§ Mr. MajorThe Muscular Dystrophy Group submitted a detailed response to the McColl report immediately following its publication. Its view, that the recommendation to provide dual purpose powered chairs should be implemented as a matter of urgency, has since been repeated in a number of letters received from local branches of the Group. In addition, on 7 May 1986, my predecessor the Minister for Health accepted a petition from Sir Richard Attenborough, the president of the group, in support of this request.
I have advised the Muscular Dystrophy Group, as I have advised other organisations anxious to see the provision of dual purpose powered chairs, that we are still considering this major issue in the context of decisions on other important aspects of the artificial limb and appliance centre services raised by the McColl report.