§ 3. Mr. Alexanderasked the Secretary of State for Social Services how much it would cost to allow private patients who need drugs to obtain them on the same basis as they are obtained by National Health Service patients.
§ The Minister for Health (Dr. Gerard Vaughan)Because the Department does not maintain records of the numbers of private patients, I cannot give my hon. Friend a specific figure. In any event, with so many competing claims for scarce NHS resources at this time, the Government do not feel that they can give a high priority to this particular proposal, although they have carefully considered it on several occasions.
§ Mr. AlexanderAs the private patient pays as much to the National Health Service as does the National Health Service patient, is it not only fair that he should be able to obtain his drugs on the same basis?
§ Dr. VaughanI appreciate my hon. Friend's feeling. The total drug bill in England in 1979, excluding hospital pharmaceutical services, was almost £740 million. The bulk of that sum was incurred on prescriptions written by general practitioners and dispensed by general practice pharmacists. The average total cost per person was over £16. I cannot believe it prudent to entertain a proposal to increase that already enormous sum, especially when it would mean removing resources from areas of greater priority.
§ Mr. OrmeIs the Minister aware that the question of the hon. Member for Newark (Mr. Alexander) is outrageous? Is he seriously asking for the provision of drugs by the NHS to the private sector when the private sector makes no contribution to the training of nurses or doctors and exploits NHS equipment? Will the hon. Gentleman bear that very much in mind?
§ Dr. VaughanI do not accept what the right hon. Gentleman has said. He is displaying his ignorance, because only this morning in the Committee considering the Health Service Bill I gave a list of the various private institutions that undertake training for nurses.