§ 20. Mr. BryantTo ask the Secretary of State for Health when he expects a resolution of the renegotiation of the general practitioners' contract for England and Wales. [26379]
§ Mr. HuttonThe NHS Confederation is leading the negotiations with British Medical Association's General Practitioners Committee, on behalf of United Kingdom Health Ministers. It is committed to putting proposals to UK Health Ministers as soon as practicable. I understand an encouraging start has been made but that further work remains.
§ Tim LoughtonTo ask the Secretary of State for Health how many general practitioners in England and Wales have received golden hellos. [24672]
§ Mr. Hutton[holding answer 8 January 2002]: To date the Department has received 137 completed application forms since the launch of the scheme on 2 November 743W 2001. There is no information available as to how many applications are currently being processed by health authorities.
§ Mr. BarkerTo ask the Secretary of State for Health how many general practice vacancies there were in each of the last two years. [28020]
§ Mr. HuttonThe Department's general practitioner recruitment, retention and vacancy survey 2000 for England and Wales reported 1,214 general practitioner vacancies outstanding at some time in the 12 month period between 1 April 1999 and 31 March 2000. These vacancies were reported by 96 per cent. out of the then 104 health authorities in England and Wales. Eight health authorities did not supply the necessary information.
For the 2001 survey 98 out of the then 100 health authorities provided information indicating that there were 2,464 general practitioner vacancies outstanding at some time in the 12 month period between 1 April 2000 and 31 March 2001.