§ Mr. Paul MarsdenTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what the average GP budget was in(a) May 1997 and (b) in the most recent financial year for which figures are available in Shrewsbury and Atcham; and if he will make a statement. [156498]
§ Yvette CooperInformation is not collected centrally in regard to individual general practitioner's budgets.
Indeed, as independent contractors, GPs do not receive budgets as such. Also, because of variations such as list size, age of patients and environmental and health factors, as well as changes to the way in which moneys are allocated, it would be difficult to produce meaningful statistics for comparative purposes.