HC Deb 13 December 1983 vol 50 cc828-9
13. Mr. Maude

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services when he expects the system of general managers at authority and unit level recommended in the Griffiths report to be established.

Mr. Fowler

I have written to Health Service chairmen asking for views by 9 January on the implementation of this and other recommendations. I will issue guidance to authorities when I have considered their response.

Mr. Maude

Is my right hon. Friend aware of the anxiety about the lessening degree of managerial efficiency in the Health Service, as is very well evidenced in the pamphlet produced by my hon. Friend the Member for Norfolk, North (Mr. Howell)? Will he ensure that steps are taken as soon as possible to increase efficiency so that resources in the Health Service are used where they are most needed?

Mr. Fowler

I must confess that I do not agree with all the suggestions put forward in the pamphlet to which my hon. Friend refers. However, where we clearly do agree is that the management process in the Health Service must be improved, and that is what the Griffiths report is all about.

Mrs. Renée Short

Where does the right hon. Gentleman expect this new layer of management to come from? Will it be from the hospital administrators, who are already receiving redundancy pay?

Mr. Fowler

The hon. Lady is wrong. It is not a new layer of management. The people who will become the general managers at district or regional level will probably be drawn in the main from the officers who are already employed.