§ Colonel Ropnerasked the Minister of Health whether, in view of the incidence 810W of sickness during the early months of the present year, he proposes to make special provision to ensure that the Drug Fund shall be able, at the end of the year, to meet in full its liabilities to chemists and bodies corporate dispensing under the National Health Insurance Acts?
Mr. HudsonAs the Drug Fund relates to the calendar year, it would be premature at this stage to estimate the extent, if any, to which payment of the chemists' accounts will be affected by the sickness experience early in the year. My right hon. Friend undertook at the time the present agreement with the chemists was made to consider representations regarding any abnormal deficit in the fund.