§ Dr. Roger Thomasasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if his Department will set up an investigation into decreasing the use of the pharmacological approach to the treatment of patients to investigate the benefits and reduced costs to the National Health Service which might result.
§ Mr. Geoffrey FinsbergNo. It is for doctors to decide in the exercise of their own clinical judgment how best to treat their patients, but my right hon. Friend does, of course, expect them to take due account of relative costs when deciding between various equally efficacious forms of treatment.