§ Tim LoughtonTo ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) how many private providers of pathology services have renewed their contracts with the NHS since 1994; [24327]
(2) if he will list private providers of pathology services under contract to the NHS. [24432]
§ Mr. HuttonThe national health service has for many years worked closely with private sector providers of pathology equipment, consumables, IT and transport. There are no centrally held statistical data on these arrangements.
Two private sector companies are currently known to have contracts to provide laboratory medicine services to the national health service. These are Quest Diagnostics Ltd. at West Middlesex NHS Trust and The Doctors Laboratory at Ealing NHS Trust. Both of these are still in operation. Omnilabs had a contract at the Lister Hospital, Stevenage but this has recently expired.