§ Mr. RichardsTo ask the Secretary of State for Wales what decisions he has now reached about the allocation of resources for hospital and community health and related services for Wales in 1994–95.
§ Mr. RedwoodI announced on 17 December my decision on the overall allocation to the national health service in Wales for 1994–95. Within the £2,076 million cash available I now propose to allocate £1,536 million to hospital and community health services—H and CHS—and the cash-limited element of the family health services—FHS—in Wales.
The funds will be distributed as follows.
Health authorities will receive £1,295 million for current purposes—an increase of £53 million or 4.3 per cent. over 1993–94 plans. Health authorities will receive £113.5 million for capital investment. The sum of £67.4 million will be provided for education and training of NHS staff and as contributions toward the running costs of England and Wales bodies, and family health service authorities will receive £14 million for their management and administration costs and £45.8 million for general medical service practice support costs.
In addition, authorities and trusts will be expected to generate efficiency savings of 2.25 per cent. and to achieve a further 5 per cent. reduction in their management, administrative and clerical costs. These savings will be available to meet the cost of pay settlements next year and for further investment in patient care.
Details of the allocations to health authorities and family health authorities and the provisional external financing limits for NHS trusts is contained in a statement which has been placed today in the Library of the House.