§ Mr. RaffanTo ask the Secretary of State for Wales whether he has reached a decision about the allocation of resources for health and personal social services in Wales for 1988–89.
§ Mr. Peter WalkerSubject to parliamentary approval, I propose to allocate £1,173 million in 1988–89 to health and personal social services in Wales. This represents a cash increase of £73.9 million over provision in 1987–88.
It will provide £843.9 million for the hospital and community health services, an increase of £46 million over provision in 1987–88. I will announce allocations to individual health authorities as soon as possible. In addition to their allocations, health authorities will retain the benefit of cash released through cost-improvement programmes, income from charges for treatment of private patients, and receipts from the sale of surplus land and buildings.
Within these totals, investment of over £19 million will be devoted to special initiatives to promote the development of modern patterns of services for those with mental handicaps, elderly people and those suffering from mental illness. I expect this to be further enhanced by investment from the discretionary resources of health and social services authorities and by the reinvestment of resources released by improvements in efficiency in the running of existing services.
The funds I have announced will maintain a substantial contribution towards the costs in Wales of measures against AIDS. I am also making available from within these totals significant additional resources for the Welsh Health Promotion Authority.