§ Mrs. EwingTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what are the estimated savings from reducing management and administrative costs in the NHS in the years(a) 1998–99 and (b) 1999–2000. [48464]
§ Mr. MilburnOn 23 December 1997, I announced a programme of measures to reduce National Health Service management costs by £73 million in England in 1998–99, together with a £7 million reduction in Departmental running costs. Target reductions for 1999–2000 and beyond will be announced in due course.
The White Paper, "The New NHS", sets out a programme of action to release £1 billion from bureaucracy over five years. Reductions planned to date will ensure that by the end of this year £240 million, which would otherwise have been spent on bureaucracy, will have been released for patient care.