HC Deb 24 July 1987 vol 120 cc589-90W
Mr. Galbraith

asked the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will give the National Health Service per capita expenditure for each of the health boards in Scotland, to include the charges retained by family practitioners.

Mr. Michael Forsyth

The information for 1985–86 is as follows:

Health Board Per Capita
(£)
Argyll and Clyde 303.06
Ayrshire and Arran 281.12
Borders 291.74
Dumfries and Galloway 334.94
Fife 275.35
Forth Valley 327.97
Grampian 326.01
Greater Glasgow 466.41
Highland 352.91
Lanarkshire 280.98
Lothian 380.41
Orkney 284.22
Shetland 279.05
Tayside 415.07
Western Isles 316.53
Scotland 353.86

Notes:

(1.) The expenditure figures used are taken from the annual accounts submitted to the Department by Health Boards. They are inclusive of charges paid by patients and retained by dental, pharmaceutical and ophthalmic practitioners. These charges amounted to £31.9 million, or £6.22 per capita, for Scotland as a whole.

(2.) Figures do not include expenditure on support services provided by the Common Services Agency on the main capital programme, or on the programme for the upgrading of the NHS estate.

(3.) The population figures used are mid-year estimates of resident population for 1985. The distribution of funds to Health Boards in Scotland is determined by population weighted according to age, sex and local mortality rates, by the amount of health care provided for patients from neighbouring areas (cross boundary flow), by teaching hospital costs, by a number of other commitments, and also by the extent to which individual Boards benefit by the operation of the resources equalisation process. It is therefore not possible to draw reliable conclusions from comparisons of per capita expenditure by Health Board based on resident population figures which make no allowance for these factors.

Mr. Bill Walker

asked the Secretary of State for Scotland whether he has revised the financial allocations to health boards for 1987–88; and if he will make a statement.

Mr. Michael Forsyth

Since the House was informed of this year's allocations on 11 March an additional £35 million has been made available. This brings to £1,570 million the allocation to health boards to meet their gross recurrent expenditure commitments on hospitals and community health services in 1987–88. After expected income is taken into account, the net cash limited allocations to individual Health boards are as follows:

Health Boards Recurrent Recurrent
(net)
£ million
Argyll and Clyde 112.583
Ayrshire and Arran 82.854
Borders 24.148
Dumfries and Galloway 40.380
Fife 77.651
Forth Valley 74.095
Grampian 142.411
Greater Glasgow 408.926
Highland 58.838
Lanarkshire 128.691
Lothian 251.390
Orkney 4.406
Shetland 5.190
Tayside 145.277
Western Isles 8.036
Total 11564.876
1 Includes £14.06 million allocated outwith the SHARE formula for specific commitments such as the national cardiac surgery service and for new developments in health care.