Health (Hansard, 30 November 1988)

§ Mrs. Margaret Ewing
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will list(a) the financial resources allocated to the National Health Service in Scotland for the care of the elderly and (b) the number of units and staff specifically allocated within the National Health Service in Scotland for the care of the elderly.

§ Mr. Michael Forsyth
Financial resources allocated to health boards take account of a range of factors including the population in each board's area weighted to reflect age structure and, in particular, the number of elderly people, who require more intensive health care.
Most hospital and other NHS facilities provide services for a range of specialties. Throughout the NHS in Scotland there was an average of 10,997 staffed hospital beds in the year ending 30 September 1987 in the specialties of geriatric long-stay and geriatric assessment. At 30 September 1987 there were 204 hospital doctors in the NHS in Scotland within the specialty of geriatric medicine.

§ Mrs. Margaret Ewing
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland (1) if he will list(a) the number of people in Scotland between 65 and 75 years of age who have been identified as needing or having (i) hip replacements, (ii) cataracts, (iii) chest complaints, (iv) heart disease, (v) strokes, (vi) Parkinson's disease, (vii) Alzheimer's disease and (viii) osteo/rheumatoid arthritis, and (b) the number of people in Scotland over 75 years of age who have been identified as needing or having the above;
(2) if he will list (a) the number of 65 to 70-year-olds receiving private sector care, (b) the number of 70 to 75-year-olds receiving private sector care, (c) the number of 75 to 80-year-olds receiving private sector care, (d) the number of 80 to 85-year-olds receiving private sector care and (e) the number of people over 85 years of age receiving private sector care in Scotland;
(3) if he will list (a) the number of 65 to 70-year-olds receiving National Health Service care, (b) the number of 70 to 75-year-olds receiving National Health Service care, 255W (c) the number of 75 to 80-year-olds receiving National Health Service care, (d) the number of 80 to 85-year-olds receiving National Health Service care, and (e) the number of people over 85 years of age receiving National Health Service care in Scotland.

§ Mr. Michael Forsyth
The information requested is not held centrally.

Dr. Thomas
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he has initiated any studies into the conclusions reached by Dr. Brenda Gibson and Dr. Tim Eden published in theLancet on 9 September relating to childhood leukaemia in Scotland.

§ Mr. Michael Forsyth
The letter referred to reached no conclusions. It reported an observation that during 1987 more children than one would normally expect were diagnosed with leukaemia. The authors offered no likely explanation for this. Rates of child leukaemia vary considerably from year to year in the normal course of events. However, I shall be looking closely at the 1987 and the 1988 rates when they are available, in case they offer evidence of a rising trend.