§ Mr. BlunkettTo ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) how many calls the health information service has received since it was set up;
(2) how many people are employed to answer calls in the health information service;
(3) what was the cost of setting up the health information service, including publicity; and what are the running costs of the service.
§ Mr. SackvilleThe information, in the form requested, is not available centrally. A special trawl of regions has produced the information set out below.
The number of calls received by the health information service in the period April 1992 to December 1992 was 51,252. In the period between 26 January 1993, when the freephone facility was set up, to 31 December 1993 the number of calls was 136,293, making a total of 187,545.
The number of staff employed to answer the telephones is 31.5 whole-time equivalent personnel.
The total setting-up costs for the regions for 1992–93 were £379,182 and £209,257 for publicity, totalling £588,439, and for 1993–94 £287,686 and £156,701 for publicity, totalling £444,387.
The total setting-up costs for the Department of Health were £397,000. The running costs of the health information service operated by all regions were £899,113 for 1992–93 and £1,401,127 for 1993–94.