NHS Supplies Authority

HC Deb 08 March 1994 vol 239 cc159-60W

Mr. Redmond

To ask the Secretary of State for Health if she will place in the Library a copy of the PE Consultancy report on the NHS Supplies Authority.

Mr. Sackville

I refer the hon. Member to the reply I gave my hon. Friend the Member for Hendon, South (Mr. Marshall) on 10 February, at column423.

Mr. Redmond

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what proportion of hospital supplies are purchased through the NHS Supplies Authority.

Mr. Sackville

About half, on the basis that the total full-year value of National Health Service Supplies contracts on behalf of NHS hospital and community health services in 1992–93 was about £1.7 billion and the outturn total NHS HCHS spend on supplies in 1991–92, the latest year for which a figure is available, was about £3.5 billion.