§ Mr. Moneyasked the Secretary of State for Social Services (1) how many dispensing accounts for National Health Services in the Ipswich and East Suffolk area have 364W payment outstanding for a period of more than three calendar months;
(2) what period of delay is involved in the payment of fees due to National Health Service practices in the Ipswich and East Suffolk area at present; and in the case of how many such practices has there been a delay in payment of more than three calendar months;
§ Dr. OwenI assume the Questions refer to doctors. I understand from the Suffolk Family Practitioner Committee that the only delay in payment of fees and allowances to doctors in the Ipswich and East Suffolk areas at present is of certain classes of fees paid to some dispensing doctors. These fees usually represent a bit under half the dispensing fees paid to the doctors concerned. Final payments to 16 practices in East Suffolk are over three months late but most of the money has has been paid to the doctors at the normal time under an arrangement my Department introduced for advance payments.