§ Mr. Frank Allaunasked the Secretary of State for Social Services (1) what representations he has received for the provision of bleepers to general practitioners, with partial reimbursement of the cost, to keep in constant touch with accident, hospital and emergency services; if he will estimate the net saving in such provision after deducting secretarial and telephone answering services at present entailed; and what research into such a scheme has been undertaken by his Department;
(2) if he will undertake an experiment in Salford or some other industrial area into the provision of bleepers for general practitioners with partial reimbursement of the cost.
§ Mr. Carter-Jonesasked the Secretary of State for Social Services (1) what representations he has received for the provision of bleepers to general practitioners, with partial reimbursement of the cost, to keep in constant touch with accident, hospital and emergency services; if he will estimate the net saving in such provision after deducting secretarial and telephone answering services at present entailed; and what research into such a scheme has been undertaken by his Department;
(2) if he will undertake an experiment in Salford or some other industrial area into the provision of bleepers for general practitioners with partial reimbursement of the cost.
§ Dr. OwenApart from the correspondence I have had with my hon. Friend the Member for Eccles (Mr. Carter-Jones), the Department has during the past 12 months received one letter on this subject from a family practitioner committee.
211WA general medical practitioner is an independent contractor to the National Health Service, and as such is responsible for providing himself with whatever equipment he requires in order to provide necessary and appropriate services for his patients. It is thus for the individual practitioner to decide whether or not he needs to have a paging device as part of his practice equipment. The cost of practice equipment including such devices is part of his practice expenses and as such is indirectly reimbursed through the various fees and allowances he receives.
I regret that information is not available centrally about the economics of paging devices used by general practitioners.
The Post Office is operating a radio-paging device in the Thames Valley area which includes general medical practitioners among its subscribers. I under stand that the Post Office hopes to introduce a similar service to the Greater London area later this year. In addition, there are at least three areas where paging devices are organised by groups of general practitioners, and four health authorities operate schemes which practitioners can apply to join. Practitioners can also join paging services provided by commercial companies in a number of areas.
The circumstances in different practices vary considerably, especially between urban and rural practices, and doctors' views on their need for specialised equipment of this nature will also vary, as will its availability. My Department has not hitherto carried out any research into the subject and, having regard to the number of schemes already in being, I see no reason at present for it to undertake an experiment such as my hon. Friends propose.