HC Deb 26 February 1990 vol 168 c37W
Dr. Hampson

To ask the Secretary of State for Health when he intends to carry through assurances covered in his letter to the British Medical Association on 10 October 1989 into legislative proposals to Parliament.

Mr. Kenneth Clarke

My letter of 10 October 1989 to the British Medical Association reiterated assurances that firm budgets for drugs will not operate as cash limits and that the management arrangements proposed for operating the indicative prescribing budget scheme will not infringe in any way the right of a general practitioner to prescribe all those medicines which individual patients might need. This has always been Government policy and the proposals in the NHS and Community Care Bill are consistent with these assurances.