Annual Changes

Dr. Owen
To ask the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will list for each year since 1979 the annual changes in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, in the numbers of (a) discharges and deaths, (b) new out-patients and attendances, (c) bottles of blood issued, (d) pathology tests, (e) ambulance journeys and (f) general practitioners' prescriptions.

Mrs. Currie
Available information is given in the tables. Information relating to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland is the responsibility of my right hon. and learned Friend the Secretary of State for Scotland and my right hon. Friends the Secretaries of State for Wales and for Northern Ireland.

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|     |
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|19791|
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|1980 |
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|1981 |
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|1982 |
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|1983 |
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|1984 |
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|1985 |
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|1986 |
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Source: DHSS form SBH195.

Notes:

1. All patient-journeys are included in the totals whether the patient was carried by directly provided services or agency and supplementary services.

2. One patient-journey is defined as one patient carried once in one direction. A patient taken to a hospital and later in the same day taken home again counts as two patient-journeys.

1 1979 data cover a period of industrial dispute early in the year.

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|    |
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|1979|
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|1980|
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|1981|
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|1982|
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|1983|
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|1984|
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|1985|
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|1986|
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These data include a small number of prescriptions written by dentists, service doctors and hospital doctors which were dispensed by retail chemists. Prescriptions dispensed by dispensing doctors are not included.