Eye Tests

HC Deb 08 May 1990 vol 172 cc82-3W

Mr. Kirkwood

To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list in theOfficial Report the number of NHS eye tests carried out between 1 April and 30 September 1989.

Mrs. Virginia Bottomley

The number of NHS sight tests paid for by FPCs and health boards between 1 April 1989 and 31 September 1989 was as follows:

	Million
England	3.380
Wales	0.170
Scotland	0.282
Great Britain	3.832

Of these 1.813 million were conducted before 1 April and 2.018 were conducted after 1 April and paid for before the end of September.

Mr. Kirkwood

To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will release the results of the survey commissioned by his Department into the number of eye tests in the first quarter of 1990 compared with previous years; and what allowance will be made when analysing the figures for the £1 million advertising campaign encouraging people to have eye tests.

Mrs. Virginia Bottomley

The results of the survey commissioned by the Department into the number of sight tests in the first quarter of 1990 will be available by the early summer. A summary of the findings will be placed in the Library. No special allowance will be made when analysing the figures for the advertising campaign encouraging people to have sight tests, which took place in the summer and autumn of 1989.

Mr. Kirkwood

To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) if he will give a detailed breakdown of how the saving from the imposition of eye test charges has been reallocated to other areas of primary health care;

(2) if the estimated saving to the National Health Service budget arising from the imposition of eye test charges has been reallocated within primary health care as new additional funds on top of last year's budgetary allocations.

Mrs. Virginia Bottomley

The saving from restricting the National Health Service sight-test to certain priority groups with effect from January 1989 was taken into account in setting budget plans for 1989–90 and subsequent years. Estimated total net expenditure on family practitioner services including administration in 1989–90 was £294 million higher than the total spend in 1988–89, an increase of nearly 7 per cent., and is planned to increase further in subsequent years. In budget planning the total available resources are distributed according to service need; savings in one area are not directly earmarked to specific expenditure in another.