§ Mrs. BeckettTo ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to her answer of 23 February,Official Report, column 323, how much of the expenditure per head of population on primary care is demand driven and how much allocated by formula; and if she will make a statement. [21927]
§ Mr. SackvillePrimary care consists of all four branches of the family health services—the general medical, dental and ophthalmic services and the pharmaceutical service, together with the community health services. The cost of various elements of these services is met by family health services authorities, the Dental Practice Board and health authorities. The family health services form by far the largest part, and are mostly demand-led apart from the costs associated with the direct reimbursement of certain general practitioner practice expenses and the drugs cost and practice expenses' elements of the budgets managed by GP fundholders. Expenditure on community health services is funded locally by health authorities but is not separately identifiable in data available centrally. It is not possible, therefore, to give a precise apportionment of the overall expenditure on primary care services between the demand-led and cash-limited elements, nor to calculate the proportion allocated by formula, although this would be small.