§ Dr. Roger Thomasasked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many doctors will be appointed as (a) unit representatives and (b) general managers in each of the health regions in England; what will be the remuneration to individual doctors appointed; and what will be the total annual cost to each health region.
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§ Mr. Kenneth ClarkeWe believe there are about 1,000 elected unit medical representatives in England, though we have no precise figure centrally. In future, district health authorities will be empowered to pay a locally determined fee of up to £2,500 per annum if they wish to ask a unit medical representative to undertake specific management duties within the new general management function. We do not know how many unit medical representatives will benefit from this arrangement.
All general managers appointed from inside the National Health Service, including doctors, are eligible for an additional amount above their present salary of up to £3,000 per annum. Any clinician who is appointed unit general manager and is also the unit medical representative may not receive more than £4,000 per annum in increased salary. We cannot yet estimate how many doctors will be appointed unit general managers but we hope that a substantial proportion of the new managers at this level will be clinicians.
All payments to managers under the new arrangements must be contained within health authorities existing financial provision for management.