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Northern Ireland Office

Answer

Mrs. Iris Robinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will make a statement on (a) funding for and (b) development of services for those with prosthetic limbs. [187784] Angela Smith: Funding for the prosthetic service is provided from the Physical and Sensory Disability Programme of Care. In 2003-04 expenditure on the prosthetics service totalled just over £l million. Representatives of the Prosthetic Users Forum met officials in the Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety in the Autumn of 2003 to discuss the prosthetics service and in March 2004, Green Park Healthcare Trust submitted to the Department a copy of the report `Needs Assessment for Northern Ireland Regional Prosthetic Service'. This included a service development plan for 2004-05 costing £360,000. The Department has included as an action in its Priorities for Action 2004-05: `Boards and Trust should collaborate with Green Park Trust to develop the range of prosthetics available. In particular, this should include wider provision of an improved range of prosthetics for some 125 users by 31 March 2005. Boards should submit final figures for 2004-05 in their September progress reports'. An additional £250,000 was allocated by the Department for this purpose. A further meeting between representatives of the Prosthetics Users Forum and Departmental officials is being arranged and this will assist in developing future plans to further develop the prosthetics service.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

424 c1640-1W;424 c1638-9W; 187784

Session

2003-04

Subjects

Health services Finance NHS Patients Northern Ireland Prosthetics

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk