§ Mr. Peter Millsasked the Minister of Health what plans he has to help single-handed practitioners in isolated country areas who find it difficult to form a group partnership; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. K. RobinsonThe special payments to doctors in rural areas are being increased by 5 per cent. from £376,000 per quarter to £394,800 with effect from 1st October 1966, and later by a further 5 per cent. to £413,600. Such doctors who wish to improve their practice premises may, like others, apply for an improvement grant of one-third of the cost of the proposed works. They may also qualify for a group practice payment for a group of two doctors instead of the usual minimum of three.
§ Mr. Peter Millsasked the Minister of Health why he refuses to allow payment 215W to a doctor's wife for services as an auxiliary help in single-handed and isolated practices; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. K. RobinsonDoctors' wives are not covered by the provisions of the scheme for direct payments towards the cost of employing ancillary help because their inclusion could not be achieved without controls which neither the Government nor the medical profession in general would want. The contribution which doctors' wives make to their husbands' practices was, however, recognised in the negotiations between the Health Departments and the representatives of the profession last year and fully taken into account in the Review Body's recommendations on the remuneration of doctors themselves.