AIDS (Hansard, 12 January 1998)

§ Mr. Sheerman
To ask the Secretary of State for Health what discussions he has had with health authorities and trusts on standards of health care for AIDS patients. [22169]

§ Ms Jowell
Earlier this year a consensus statement was published in theLancet by The British HIV Association. This provides guidelines for antiretroviral treatment of HIV seropositive individuals, and has been widely disseminated across the country. The Department will shortly be issuing guidance to all health authorities in England on the use of the £228 million provided for HIV/AIDS treatment and care in 1998–99, which will draw attention to the publication of the guidelines, so that all health authorities are aware of them.

§ Mr. Sheerman
To ask the Secretary of State for Health which health authorities and trusts are not offering the full range of treatment and drugs to AIDS patients. [22171]

§ Ms Jowell
There have been anecdotal reports but no formal evidence that health authorities and trusts are not offering the full range of treatments and drugs to AIDS patients. In recognition of the increased costs and uptake of combination drug treatments we have allocated an extra £23 million to the HIV/AIDS treatment and care budget for 1998–99. £3 million of this extra funding is to provide additional resources to the 14 health authorities with the highest caseload. The new National Health Service White Paper outlines a modernisation programme which will provide a more consistent quality of care in the future.

§ Mr. Sheerman
To ask the Secretary of State for Health what are the relative costs of treating an AIDS patient(a) in hospital and (b) as an outpatient. [22172]

§ Ms Jowell
The relative costs of treating AIDS patients in hospital and as outpatients will vary from hospital to hospital due to a variety of factors including the choice of treatment, which is a matter for discussion between patient and doctor. The success so far of new combination drug treatments for people with HIV and AIDS is resulting in fewer patients being treated as hospital in-patients. For the longer term, we have set up an Expert Working Group to undertake a Stocktake of the HIV/AIDS treatment and care budget, its use and future distribution, taking into account the costs and benefits of combination drug treatments.