§ 21. Mr. Pageasked the Minister of Health the administrative cost of investigations under Regulation 12 (1) of Statutory Instrument, 1948, No. 507, investigation of excessive prescribing, during the past 12 months; and in how many instances, as a result of such investigations, he referred a matter to a local medical committee.
§ Miss Hornsby-SmithThe administrative cost includes some items which cannot be exactly determined, but is estimated to be under £15,000 for the past 12 months; during that period eight cases were referred to local medical committees.
§ Mr. PageIs my hon. Friend satisfied that this rather elaborate investigation is producing results which are worth while?
§ Miss Hornsby-SmithI would point out to the hon. Member that the investigations are in two stages. In the first place, the regional medical officer goes to the doctor who is responsible for over-prescribing and endeavours to point out to him the effect of his over-prescribing 1541 and to obtain his co-operation. In that respect about 200 doctors have been interviewed at a saving, as near as we can estimate it, of £300,000 a year. It is only in extreme cases, where doctors refuse co-operation, that they are referred to the committee, and that accounts for the low number of eight.
§ Mr. Langford-HoltHow is it that the hon. Lady was able to arrive at the answer which she has just given when she was unable to give any figures in reply to my Question No. 16?
§ Miss Hornsby-SmithI cannot go back to Question No. 16, but I shall be only too happy to tell the hon. Member the very simple answer afterwards.
§ 22. Mr. Pageasked the Minister of Health in how many instances during the past 12 months he has, under Regulation 12 (7) of Statutory Instrument, 1948, No. 507, directed executive councils to withhold money from a practitioner; the total sum so withheld; and the total of the excessive cost of prescriptions incurred in these instances.
§ Miss Hornsby-SmithMy right hon. Friend directed the withholding of a total of £500 from three doctors in partnership. Independent referees estimated the excess cost of their prescribing to be £232 in a single month and remarked that they appeared to have been over-prescribing for a long time.
§ Mr. PageWill my hon. Friend look into the procedure in those cases, in which it often results that a doctor is fined merely for a medical opinion which does not coincide with the majority of medical opinion?
§ Miss Hornsby-SmithI cannot accept the hon. Member's findings on that. These committees are properly constituted under the Act, and the evidence is put to my right hon. Friend, who comes to a decision of this nature only in comparatively grave cases.