§ Mr. Anthony Grantasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what steps he is taking to encourage cost-consciousness throughout the National Health Service; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. MoyleMy right hon. Friend and I attach the utmost importance to the most effective use of resources in the National Health Service and to the need to concentrate resources on direct patient care. Among our immediate objectives are the more effective use of the domestic, laundry, catering and purchasing activities, a reduction in the amount of expenditure on sales promotion which pharmaceutical companies can charge to the National Health Service, and savings in management costs. Like other areas of public expenditure, most of the National Health Service has had to discipline itself to live within cash limits, and in 1976–77 health authority current spending was within ½ per cent. of the revenue cash limit of £3,500 million.
§ Mr. Anthony Grantasked the Secretary of State for Social Services, of the £863,944 spent in the financial year 1975–76 on domestic and other general services in National Health Service hospitals in England, how much was attributable to the hospitals' own labour and materials and how much to independent contractors.
§ Mr. MoyleThe expenditure is not identified in this way in the accounts submitted to my Department, but it is estimated that the total of nearly £864 million spent on these services in 1975–76 included payments to independent contractors of up to £32 million.