§ Mr. Barry JonesTo ask the Secretary of State for Wales what additional individual health authorities' allocations he has announced; and if he will make a statement. [40647]
§ Mr. Win GriffithsI announced, in May 1997, £600,000 for breast cancer services which was disbursed to the health authorities and Trusts by the Cancer Services Co-ordinating Group and £2.5 million for primary care. In October 1997, I announced £9.5 million to assist with winter pressures. In December 1997, a cash increase of £113 million for NHS Wales in total for 1998–99 was announced by the Secretary of State, which included £60.2 million new money and an additional £1.3 million found from within the Welsh Office Block.
The 1998–99 NHS cash increase included £77 million in revenue funding, of which £65.8 million was allocated to health authorities, and also included an additional £2.4 million for cancer services and £0.5 million to tackle prescription fraud. Following the latest Budget, I announced on 18 March an additional £25.1 million for NHS Wales for 1998–99 to bring in-patient waiting lists down to the level when we took office. £18 million of the additional money has already been allocated and further guidance on its use will be issued shortly. The balance of the money will be used to address in year waiting list issues as they arise together with other initiatives such as preparing a Corporate Plan for NHS Wales and managing the Trust reconfiguration exercise.
Allocations directly to health authorities of the Winter Pressure money, the 1998–99 health authority cash increase and the Waiting List money are as follows:
comprehensive and ambitious targets by which we can gain an overall measure of progress towards better health in Wales.