§ Mr. D. E. Thomasasked the Secretary of State for Wales (1) if his Department has completed its assessment of the study produced by Professor Mapes on district health authority funding in Wales with particular reference to the factor of sparsity of population; and if he will make a statement;
(2) whether he intends to discuss with the steering committee on resource allocation in Wales the issue of sparsity of population, in order to amend the distribution mechanism to allow for the additional costs to services from delivery to sparse populations.
§ Mr. John Stradling ThomasThe Welsh Office has completed its assessment of Professor Mapes' report on the relative costs of providing health services in rural areas. In consequence the joint Welsh Office/NHS working party on resource distribution, at a recent meeting, decided that the report did not provide a basis for taking sparsity into account in the resource allocation system. The working party also agreed to consider what other steps might be taken to tackle the issue of sparsity in relation to relative resource allocations.
§ Lord James Douglas-Hamiltonasked the Secretary of State for Wales how much is spent on each person resident in Wales per capita in respect of National Health Service funding in Wales in each of the last five years.
§ Mr. John Stradling ThomasThe information requested is as follows:
Year £ per capita 1979–80 167 1980–81 217 1981–82 248 1982–83 273 1983–84 *290 * provisional.