§ Mr. BurstowTo ask the Secretary of State for Health if eligibility for free NHS eye tests entitles an individual to a free domiciliary visit; and what assessment his Department has made of the availability of domiciliary eye test visits. [6456]
§ Mr. MilburnPatients eligible for National Health Service sight tests, who are unable to attend an optical practice, are eligible for a free domiciliary visit. There were 222,500 domiciliary visits paid for by health authorities in 1995–96.
§ Mr. BurstowTo ask the Secretary of State for Health for what reasons statistics on the total number of eye tests performed in Great Britain were not collected between 1989 and 1993. [6459]
§ Mr. MilburnThe Department had never collected any information on numbers of private sight tests and, in 1989, it was Government policy to restrict the amount of information required from the private sector. In 1993 agreement was reached with the optical profession on the introduction of an annual survey of a sample of opticians' workloads, which provides the information on private sight tests currently used to make estimates of the total number of sight tests.