HC Deb 03 July 1990 vol 175 cc543-4W
92. Mr. Colin Shepherd

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what has been the growth in numbers of hip replacement and knee replacement operations carried out in national health service hospitals over the last 10 years.

Mr. Dorrell

From 1979 to 1989 the number of hip replacement operations performed annually rose from 29,500 to 45,600, an increase of 55 per cent. Information on the number of knee replacement operations carried out in 1988–89 is not yet available, but preliminary figures indicate that there were around 10,000 compared with 3,100 in 1979—an increase of 200 per cent.