§ Mr. Teddy Taylorasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will make a statement on the effect of the work to rule in the Scottish offices of his Department.
§ Mr. DeakinsI regret that in parts of Scotland there have been difficulties as a result of industrial action. The effects of this action vary from office to office but in general arrears of work are accumulating across the whole range of local office activities. A result is that claims for benefit are not being cleared as quickly as usual, there is delay in dealing with correspondence and telephones are sometimes not answered. The worst effects are on supplementary benefit payments where, in addition to delays in processing new claims, adjustments to continuing benefit rates—for example, to take account of changes in local authority rents—are taking longer. There are frequent contacts with the unions concerned and everything possible will be530W consulting a general practitioner (a) at his surgery and (b) in the patient's own home; and what will be the estimated costs for each in 1976–77.
§ Mr. MoyleGeneral medical practitioners are not paid according to the number of visits by or to patients and there is no charge on patients for consultations. No returns of these visits are therefore made to family practitioner committees. Surveys indicate, however, that the number of consultations per patient per year is three to four and that about one-fifth of all consultations take place at the patient's home. These consultation rates enable figures to be derived from total payments by the NHS of the average cost per consultation but not of the difference between home visits and surgery consultations. Approximate figures for England for the three years are as follows:
done to resolve the dispute with them as quickly as possible.