§ Mrs. Iris RobinsonTo ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will estimate how many individuals in Northern Ireland have implantable defibrillators; and how many procedures to implant these devices were performed in the Province in each of the last five years. [175160]
§ Angela SmithProcedures to perform the implantation of defibrillators are undertaken at the Royal Group of Hospitals HSS Trust and the Belfast City Hospital HSS Trust. Each trust maintains records of their patients who have been fitted with the device. According to the two trusts there are 381 individuals in Northern Ireland who have been fitted with implantable defibrillators since the beginning of the financial year 1999–2000.
The following table provides figures for the number of procedures that were performed to implant these devices over the last five years.
Number of implantable defibrillators fitted
1999–2000 46 2000–01 66 2001–02 55 2002–03 81 2003–04 133