§ Mr. Harry EwingTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland (1) if every right hon. and hon. Member representing a Scottish constituency will be able to arrange for an official from the Scottish Home and Health Department to discuss with each general practitioner in their constituency their concern for the future of the general practitioner service, following the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, the hon. Member for Stirling (Mr. Forsyth), instructing an official from the Scottish Home and Health Department to contact Dr. William Young of Stirling;
(2) if he will make a statement on the circumstances in which an official of the Scottish Home and Health Department has been instructed to contact Dr. William Young of Stirling following his commenting on the proposed changes affecting general practitioners and the National Health Service.
§ Mr. Michael Forsyth[holding answer 19 May 1989] : On 14 May it was reported in the press that Dr. Young's views on the implications of the Government's proposals for the reform of the NHS had dismayed two of his patients. They were said to be particularly alarmed by the statements attributed to Dr. Young that all GPs would be given drug budgets from 1991; that if they exceeded them the money would be clawed back the next year; and that patients requiring expensive treatment might have to come off his list on the ground of cost. I wrote to Dr. Young on 15 May expressing my concern about these reports pointing out that when indicative prescribing budgets are introduced in Scotland in 1992 they will reflect the health and age of the patients on the GPs list and that more money will be allowed for the chronically sick and the elderly. If, nevertheless, the budget turns out to be not enough for the cost of treatment which the doctor's patients justifiably require, the budget will be reviewed and the doctor will not be penalised. There should therefore be no question of a doctor being unable to prescribe for a sick person because he or she has run out of money or of removing patients from the list because of the cost of their treatment.
Because these particular events have been drawn to the attention of the general public in this way and were likely to cause widespread alarm, I released my letter to Dr. Young to the press. I also asked a medical officer in the Scottish Home and Health Department to meet Dr. Young to discuss his interpretation of the Government's plans. It will not be necessary for similar arrangements to be made in respect of every GP in Scotland as I have already been in direct contact with each of them to supply them with the full facts of the Government's plans for making the National Health Service in Scotland even better than it is at present.