§ Mr. David NicholsonTo ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on the United Kingdom's heart transplant programme.
§ Mr. Kenneth ClarkeThe number of heart and heart-lung transplants carried out in the United Kingdom has grown significantly this year. In the period 1 January to 25 November 1988, 348 heart and heart-lung transplants were performed compared with 288 over the same period last year.
Revenue funding for the heart transplant programme will rise from £6.8 million in 1988–89 to £9.1 million in 1989–90, a cash increase of over one third. This will provide for about 50 extra heart and heart-lung transplants above current levels and for the follow-up of over 350 patients successfully transplanted in earlier years. Nearly £1 million of capital will be spent in 1989–90 on essential developments at the transplant centres. I shall also be asking the supra-regional services advisory group to advise me on the location of a fifth heart transplant which will receive central funding from April 1990.
This expanding programme, which is at the forefront of medical technology, shows the Government's determination to modernise and improve the NHS.