General Practitioners

HC Deb 21 January 1992 vol 202 c145W

Mrs. Dunwoody

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what percentage of expenditure on primary health care is paid directly to general practitioners and their staff.

Mrs. Virginia Bottomley

The information requested is shown in the table.

Primary Care Services	1989–90
	£ millions1
Hospital and community health services (HCHS):
General community patient care	581
Community mental illness	154
Community learning disability	77
Total HCHS primary health care	812
Family health services (FCHS):2
Non cash-limited	4,811
Cash-limited3	302
Total FHS	5,113
Total primary health care	5,925
Of which general medical services (GMS):4
Non cash-limited	1562
Cash-limited	302
Total GMS	1,569
GMS as a percentage of:
Total primary health care expenditure	26.5
Total FHS expenditure	30.7
1Figures drawn from the programme budget. Disaggregated figures for the HCHS programme are not yet available for 1990–91.
2Expenditure on family health services (excluding administration) provided by family doctors, dentists, community pharmacists and opticians.
3A proportion of general medical practitioners' expenses, actually cash limited from April 1990.
4Includes £750,000 paid direct to British Telecom for priority fault repair services for general medical ractitioners. The balance—less superannuation contributions where appropriate—was paid direct to general medical practioners as fees, allowances and practice expenses, including the costs of employing practice staff.