HC Deb 06 December 1994 vol 251 cc129-30
4. Mr. Carrington

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment has been made of the progress of general practitioners in meeting their targets under the general practitioner contract in the North Thames region.

Mr. Malone

I am pleased to be able to tell my hon. Friend that, as at April 1993, 88 per cent. of general practitioners in North Thames achieved targets for childhood immunisation, 83 per cent. for pre-school booster and 93 per cent. for cervical cytology. This represents an improvement since 1990 of more than 10 per cent. for childhood immunisation and the pre-school booster, and 25 per cent. for cervical cytology—an excellent record.

Mr. Carrington

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for his answer, which shows a most impressive record against the targets. One of the problems facing general practice in west London, however, is the large number of single-doctor surgeries. Will my hon. Friend take measures to enable doctors to come together, so that they can become fundholders as a group?

Mr. Malone

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for his acknowledgement of the successful figures. I hope that the hon. Member for Livingston (Mr. Cook) will pass on to the right hon. Member for Derby, South (Mrs. Beckett), who is sitting on the Opposition Front Bench, the fact that, when we set them, he said that the targets would never be attainable. General practitioners are now attaining them all over the country.

I can tell my hon. Friend that we encourage single practitioners to combine to form fundholding practices where we are able to do so. We give them other benefits such as allowances specifically geared to ensure that they can manage their practices more easily and co-operate. We have also announced a range of measures to encourage fundholding, not least a community fundholding threshold for lists of 3,000. The position will improve, as my hon. Friend will discover when he visits the Library and finds that his region has an additional allocation of £153,385,000 this year.

Mr. Purchase

Is the Minister aware that, in my authority, the targets for cervical testing have been missed by 40 per cent.—

Madam Speaker

Order. The question relates specifically to the North Thames region. I have tried to tell hon. Members that they must read the Order Paper.

Mr. Purchase

I am trying, Madam Speaker, to make a comparison between my authority and the one referred to in the question.

Madam Speaker

In that case, the hon. Gentleman should table a substantive question. I expect him to do so next month.

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