§ Ms. HarmanTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what research his Department has funded to assess the safety or the comparative costs of delivery in(a) district general hospitals, (b) general practitioner maternity units and (c) at home; and if he will give the conclusions of each project funded.
§ Mr. Michael Forsyth[holding answer 11 July 1990]: The Scottish Home and Health Department provides core funding for the health economics research unit and the social paediatric and obstetric research unit, which are based in Aberdeen university and Glasgow university respectively.
769WIn the late 1970s the health economics research unit published "An Analysis of the Costs and Functions of General Practitioner and Specialist Maternity Hospital Units" which showed that the cost per delivery and per occupied bed-day in general practitioner and consultant units was not dissimilar.
Over the past 20 years the social paediatric and obstetric research unit's research programme has covered epidemiological studies of maternal and child care and the evaluation of the performance of aspects, including safety, of the Scottish maternity services. This recognises that in practice straightforward confinements can be handled at home but potentially more complex ones should be directed to specialist services at an early stage. The results of the studies have been widely publicised.
The Department is funding separately a study based at Dundee university of antenatal care in a random sample of Scottish hospitals.