Incontinence: Medical Equipment

Greg Mulholland
To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many (a) healthcare professionals, (b) primary care trust representatives, (c) strategic health authority representatives, (d) patients and (e) others responded to the June 2008 consultation on changes to Part IX of the Drug Tariff; and if he will make a statement.

Phil Hope
The Department received 85 formal responses to the June consultation entitled “Proposed new arrangements under Part IX of the Drug Tariff for the provision of stoma and urology appliances—and related services—in Primary Care. June 2008”. A breakdown is shown in the following table.

---------------------------------------------------
|Respondent                                |Number|
---------------------------------------------------
|Health care professionals                 |13    |
---------------------------------------------------
|Primary care trust representatives        |18    |
---------------------------------------------------
|Strategic health authority representatives|0     |
---------------------------------------------------
|Patients                                  |16    |
---------------------------------------------------
|Others                                    |38    |
---------------------------------------------------
|Total                                     |85    |
---------------------------------------------------