§ Mr. SimsTo ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what guidelines her Department gives to health authorities for record keeping and collating statistics in hospital ophthalmic departments;
(2) what data health authorities are required to collate from hospital ophthalmology departments.
§ Dr. MawhinneyPurchasers and providers are required to keep agreed sets of data on all general in-patient and out-patient activity and for patients awaiting elective admission. The information requirements are described in module 1 (hospital services) and module 3 (paramedic and cross-sector services) of the national health service data manual, copies of which are available in the Library. In addition, in relation to hospital ophthalmic departments, details of sight tests undertaken and numbers of glasses prescribed by the hospital eye service must be kept.
§ Mr. SimsTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what was the number of referrals from general practitioners and optometrists to hospital ophthalmology out-patients clinics in each year since 1985.
§ Dr. MawhinneyThe available information is shown in the table. Separate figures for referrals from optometrists are not available centrally.
507W
Consultant out-patient activity—ophthalmology departments Referral attendances Consultant initiated attendances GP written referral request1 1987–88 588,973 2,277,436 451,006 1988–89 574,532 2,264,752 467,371 1989–90 579,693 2,308,099 462,710 1990–91 599,520 2,331,682 478,141 1991–92 663,192 2,350,056 529,243
1GP written referrals are included in the referral attendances column.