§ Mr. Tom Coxasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what will be the amount of money to be allocated to the Wandsworth health authority for the recently announced extra funding to be made by his Department to London health services; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. NewtonThe special fund of £30 million over two years has been established to help ease the transitional problems which some districts in regions receiving less than national growth may face. My right hon. Friend hopes to announce details of allocations from the fund to regions shortly, and to give guidance on how the fund is to be used.
§ Mr. Kirkwoodasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he has any plans to raise the long-term growth assumption for the hospital and community health services in England from the current ½ per cent. figure; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. NewtonLong-term resource assumptions are intended to provide a broad framework for regions' ten year strategic plans.
When the existing assumptions were issued in 1983 (HC(83)12) it was made clear to health authorities that the level of resources available for health services in the future would depend on the success of the national economy and on competing demands for resources, and could not be predicted with any certainty. The position would be reviewed in the public expenditure survey. Health authorities were therefore asked to ensure that their long-term plans were flexible enough to cope with levels of resources below the long-term assumption and to make good use of any extra resources which could be made available. Authorities were also asked to continue to release further resources through increased efficiency for improvements and new developments.
The long-term assumptions do not therefore require fine tuning year by year, and we would not expect to revise them until guidelines are issued for the next strategic planning round.