§ 2.48 p.m.
§ Lord AYLESTONEMy Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.
§ The Question was as follows:
§ To ask Her Majesty's Government what is the ratio of patients to general practitioners in the National Health Service, and what is regarded as the ideal figure to ensure good medical coverage of the population without overworking the doctors.
§ Lord WELLS-PESTELLMy Lords, at 1st October, 1976, the latest date for which figures are available, the average list size of general practitioners providing a full range of general medical services in England and Wales was 2,342. The workload of individual practices is affected by many factors other than the number of patients, so there can be no one figure that would satisfy the criteria suggested by my noble friend.
§ Lord AYLESTONEMy Lords, I thank my noble friend for that Answer. 297 Is he aware that there seems to be a tendency on the part of the appropriate National Health Service authorities to distribute practices, when they become vacant, among existing practitioners, rather than appoint new doctors to those practices? In an area with which I am familiar in Surrey, four doctors have retired within the past 12 months, and no new doctor has been appointed to a practice.
§ Lord WELLS-PESTELLMy Lords, I was not aware of such a tendency. I can only say to my noble friend, and to your Lordships, that very often a group practice can take considerably more patients than it has at present. The top limit for a general practitioner is in the region of 3,500 patients. It may well be that, if a doctor leaves a particular practice, the remaining doctors can take up a fair number of the patients. But, as I said, the situation depends on a number of other factors; for example, the average age of patients in the practice, and whether patients in the practice need a considerable amount of continuing care, in which case the case-load will tend to be smaller.