§ Mr. McCartneyTo ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will list the NHS ambulance services in Northern Ireland which have contracts with private sector health care providers.
§ Mr. AncramThe Eastern ambulance service HSS trust has just agreed a contract with a private clinic. The other three ambulance services in Northern Ireland have no contracts with the private health care sector.
§ Mr. McCartneyTo ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many private patient journeys were undertaken by NHS patients in Northern Ireland for journeys to and from(a) nursing homes and (b) private hospitals in the period from 1985 to 1993; what ambulance charges were levied on these NHS patients and what was the total money earned from these charges for the same period.
§ Mr. AncramWhilst this information is not available in the format requested over the period 1987–88 to 1993–94 a total of 148 patient journeys were charged for. It is not possible to identify the numbers of private patient journeys undertaken to and from nursing homes and private hospitals. Consequently the charges levied and the total money earned is not available.
Information was not collected prior to 1987–88.
§ Mr. McCartneyTo ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many private ambulance contracts there were for Northern Ireland in the period 1985 to 1993.
§ Mr. AncramOver the period 1985 to 1993 no private ambulance contracts were in place in Northern Ireland.