§ Ms LawrenceTo ask the Secretary of State for Wales how many people in Dyfed/Powys Health Authority area by unitary authority area are provided with continence services; and what budget has been allocated to continence care in real terms for each year since 1990–91. [43472]
§ Mr. Win GriffithsThe funding for continence services is unhypothepothecated and is within each health authority's discretionary allocation. It is not possible, therefore, to give precise figures for budgets for these services for the years in question. Figures that are available for 1997/98 in the Pembrokeshire and Derwen NHS Trust show that it spent £198,000 on community-based continence care.
The GP Morbidity Database Project estimated a rate of 3.8 per 1,000 people in Wales suffering from incontinence during 1996. This would imply a total for Wales of around 11,000. This is likely to be an underestimate of the number of people provided with services because the data record those patients consulting their GP about incontinence in 1996; patients coded as suffering from incontinence in previous years would not appear in the data.
378WEstimates at more detailed geographical levels are not robust. Data collected from NHS Trusts situated in the Dyfed Powys area indicate that Continence Nurses made a total of 995 contacts during the financial year 1996–97. This does not equate with people seen, since more than one contact during the year may well have been made.