§ Mr. Spriggsasked the Minister of Health why there is discrimination between applicants for propelled chairs;
14Wlast ten years and the proportions of the total drug bill—excluding payments to doctors—and the total cost of the National Health Service respectively which these costs represent is shown in the table below.
The total drug bill includes not only the cost of prescriptions dispensed by chemist contractors but also payments to medical practitioners for supplying and dispensing drugs and appliances to their own patients. These payments, which have varied from about £1.2 million in 1949–50 to an estimated £2 million in 1958–59, cannot be analysed between ingredient costs and professional fees and they have therefore been excluded, except from the total cost of the Service (column 4).
No information is available as to the annual cost of the ingredients dispensed by chemist contractors based on manufacturers or retail prices, whether in terms of actual or constant prices, though during the period 1948 to 1958 the consumer price index covering the whole field of consumer goods and services rose by about 43 per cent. In any event, the introduction of many new drugs throughout this period would tend to invalidate attempts to compare the annual costs at constant prices.
and in what circumstances he is prepared to help disabled persons who, having failed to obtain a propelled chair through his Department, buy one themselves out of their limited financial means.
15W
§ Mr. Walker-SmithEach case is considered on its merits according to the general criteria of which the hon. Member has already been informed. I have no powers under the National Health Service Act, 1946, to make grants to assist patients to buy or maintain their own machines.