§ Mr. HealdTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what the reporting rates are to the Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre by(a) public health laboratories and (b) NHS microbiology laboratories. [78788]
512W
§ Ms BlearsInformation on reporting rates from Public Health Laboratory Service and National Health Service laboratories is not available. However, information available from the communicable disease surveillance centre shows that a total of 157,499 reports were received from NHS laboratories in 2001 and 180,503 reports from PHLS laboratories. It is estimated that the PHLS carries out over 40 per cent. of the NHS microbiology testing requirements.