To ask the Secretary of State for Health what, assessment she has made of the annual savings achieved in the NHS sector by the prescribing of short-acting anaesthetics enabling patients requiring minor surgery to be treated at out-patient day clinics rather than being admitted to hospital.

The Department has made no specific assessment. General anaesthesia is not routinely administered in out-patient clinics. Patients requiring minor surgery under general anaesthesia are normally admitted as day cases or as in-patients.