§ 47. Dr. Broughtonasked the Minister of Health what progress has been made towards arriving at a policy for a more equitable distribution of general medical practitioners' pay; and whether the forthcoming new scheme will be submitted to Parliament for approval.
§ Mr. Iain MacleodThe working party set up to agree a new method of distribution has completed its report, and I am arranging for copies to be available in the Vote Office on Thursday, 5th June. Any necessary amending Regulations will be laid before Parliament in the ordinary way.
§ Dr. BroughtonMay I ask the Minister if he is going to let us have 1656 the report of the working party in the form of a White Paper, and whether it is a fact that the payment of the additional £40 million to general medical practitioners, which is approximately the amount of the Danckwerts Award, is conditional upon there being a better policy for the distribution of pay? Can he, therefore, give us an assurance that the new proposed policy will be discussed in this House and that hon. and right hon. Gentlemen will have an opportunity of deciding whether it is satisfactory, before we are asked to approve of a large Supplementary Estimate?
§ Mr. MacleodDisentangling the three questions from that supplementary: First of all, the report which will be available in the Vote Office is the report itself of the working party. Secondly, it is true that what is called the Danckwerts Award is bound up with and indistinguishable from better distribution arrangements made by this working party. On the question of time to debate it, there are opportunities available to the Opposition, but that is entirely a matter for my right hon. Friend the Leader of the House.
§ Mr. MarquandSince the re-distribution of the total pool is one of the major tasks on which the working party was engaged, will the right hon. Gentleman publish with this report the evidence which he has of the distribution of doctors' payments at the time when the working party began its report or at the time when the Danckwerts investigation started so that we can compare the situation that existed before with what it will be under the recommendations of the working party?
§ Mr. MacleodI will consider that suggestion, but, as a matter of fact, that report was only agreed by the working party last night, and I would rather not go into more detail about it at the moment.