§ Mr. HinchliffeTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what machinery exists to deal with disputes between purchasing health authorities and non budget-holding general practitioners over the appropriateness or otherwise of referrals of patients for treatment by hospitals with which the purchasers do not have contracts.
§ Mrs. Virginia BottomleyIt has always been recognised that GPs will sometimes wish to refer a patient to a hospital or service with which the patient's district health authority (DHA) has no contract in place. District health authorities have been asked to plan to take account of this and are holding reserves of funds to meet the cost of expected levels of these referrals.
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Mrs. BottomleyDistrict health authorities would not generally be expected to challenge such referrals, unless they were clearly perverse or wholly unjustified on clinical grounds. However, DHAs would have to make a judgment on the relative priority of providing funding for the treatment. In an emergency, treatment will always be provided immediately and the cost met by the DHA. In non-urgent cases, DHAs will be expected to fund treatment as quickly as available resources allow, taking account of the clinical priority of the individual case.