§ Mr. Hoyleasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will list in the Official Report the membership of the committee to assess alternative ways of funding the National Health Service; when he expects to publish a Green Paper on the committee's findings; what relationship it has discovered between the cost of administering the health services in the United Kingdom and overseas; who are the specialist consultant advisers with experience of the private health sector who are assisting the interdepartmental working party; what is the extent of their experience in this field; what overseas countries have been visited by the interdepartmental committee; and what has been the cost of these visits.
§ Dr. VaughanThe working party consists of representatives of the Department, of the Scottish Home and Health Department, the Welsh Office, the Northern Ireland Department of Health and Social Services, the Treasury, Inland Revenue, the Central Policy Review78W Staff and two specialist consultant advisers. It is too early to say when or in what form any proposals emerging from their work may be published, but my right hon. Friend will be making a further statement in the New Year. The two specialist consultant advisers are Mr. Michael Lee, an economist and Mr. Hugh Elwell who has had many years' experience in health care outside the NHS. No visits to overseas countries have been made by the committee. Prior to its formation, two officials of the Department were awarded travelling fellowships under the auspices of an annual Nuffield and Leverhulme Trust award scheme for civil servants, in order to study aspects of health financing abroad. Countries visited were in one case the United States and Canada; in the other, France, West Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Austria, Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland. Excluding the salaries of those involved, the cost of these visits was about £19,250, which will be shared between the Department and the Trust in the usual way.
The working party is considering what if any options might improve health care in this country. When the Government have decided which of these should be studied further a more detailed assessment will be carried out, drawing on experience abroad. The working party is not carrying out any general study of the administrative costs of other health care systems.
§ Mr. Hoyleasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will publish a table showing the relative cost of administration between the National Health Service in the United Kingdom and health services in other European Economic Community countries.
§ Dr. VaughanBecause of differences in definition, methods of revenue collection and distribution, the organisation of health care and the availability of statistics, it is extremely difficult to obtain reasonably comparable figures of administrative costs for other European health services. Some rough estimates for the years around 1974 are contained in table 8 of the 1977 OECD publication, "Public Expenditure and Health", a copy of which is in the Library of the House; the Department is participating in an international exercise to update this publication.
§ Mr. Alec Jonesasked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many prescriptions were issued by the National Health Service in each of the last four years.
§ Mr. Geoffrey FinsbergThe information requested is set out below and relates to prescriptions dispensed in England.
million 1977 295.7 1978 307.1 1979 304.6 1980 303.3
§ Mr. Alec Jonesasked the Secreary of State for Social Services if he will publish a table detailing the levels of prescriptions, dental, ophthalmic and other charges in the National Health Service in 1978 and currently using comparable prices.
§ Mr. Geoffrey FinsbergThe details are set out below. Charges for 1978 have been brought to current price levels by use of the retail price Index. 79W
Charge at 1April 1978 1978 Charges reflated to current prices (RPI) Current Charges Pharmaceutical Prescription charge per item 20p 30p £1.00 Prepayment certificates (12 months) £3.50 £5.26 £15.00 Wigs stock £2.50 £3.76 £11.50 partial human hair £7.00 £10.52 £28.00 full bespoke £7.00 £10.52 £45.00 Fabric Supports surgical brassiere £2.00 £3.00 £7.00 abdominal or spinal £2.00 £3.00 £9.50 Dental Routine treatment (maximum) £5.00 £7.51 £9.00 Crowns etc.(per tooth restored) £10.00 £15.02 £20.00 Set of Dentures (resin) £20.00 £30.04 £33.00 Maximum charge for course of treatment £30.00 £45.07 £60.00 Ophthalmic Single vision spherical lens £2.90 £4.36 £2.90 up to + 6 dioptres £2.90 £4.36 £3.35 Plastic bifocal lens — — £6.35 Fused glass bifocal lens £5.50 £8.26 £6.85 Lens of any other description £6.15 £9.24 £8.30 524 NHS frame £1.44 £2.16 £2.05