§ 12. Mr. HoonTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what is the average cost to the national health service to administer (a) a general practitioner fundholding practice and (b) a non-fundholding practice.
§ Mr. MaloneGeneral practitioner fundholding practices receive additional allowances for directly managing their funds and purchasing care on their patients' behalf. These amount to around 2 per cent. of budgets set and are excellent value. It is not possible to disaggregate other administration costs from total costs.
§ Mr. HoonThe Minister has conspicuously failed to answer my question. Does he agree with the results of a survey into fundholding in Oxfordshire, which shows that the administration costs of fundholding practices are more than four times the administration costs of non-fundholding practices? Does that not show that the taxpayer is being asked to pay over the odds for a discriminatory, two-tier service?
§ Mr. MaloneI am sorry that it has not occurred to the hon. Gentleman that the reason is that fundholding practices do things in addition to those done by non-fundholding practices. The administrative costs that apply to a lot of the work of non-fundholding practices are borne by family health services authorities. If the hon. Gentleman does not understand that, he does not understand much about the matter. I hope that he will go back to his constituency and ask three of the fundholding practices there, all of them in extended, purpose-built premises, what their transaction costs are and what their administrative costs are. I bet that he will find that they are giving exceptionally good value for money and that, in addition to that, they are providing even more patient care.
§ Mr. MaloneI am sorry that the hon. Gentleman shakes his head and does not like it.