§ Tim LoughtonTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what the unit cost was of cataract operations carried out at the Royal Lancaster Infirmary under Operation Cataract by a visiting South African team; and what the equivalent cost is(a) normally at the Royal Lancaster Infirmary and (b) on average in NHS hospital trusts in England. [92555]
682W
§ Jacqui SmithThe information requested is currently unavailable for cataract operations at the Royal Lancaster Infirmary.
A major procurement exercise for clinical services, including cataracts, is currently being undertaken at the Royal Lancaster Infirmary and as such is regarded as commercially confidential. However, the average unit 683W cost of phakoemulsification cataract extraction with lens implant undertaken as a day case in a national health service trust in England is £632.