§ Mr. Carter-Jonesasked the Secretary of State for Social Services whether any additional training is required before a general practitioner is allowed to practise obstetrics.
§ Mr. MoyleNo. A general practitioner who has had the training in obstetrics provided in the undergraduate curriculum can practise obstetrics in the NHS but only for patients for whom he provides general medical services. A practitioner must be on the obstetric list, and therefore must have had additional training, to give maternity medical services to any other patients. Eighty per cent. of practitioners in England are on the obstetric list but only 3 per cent. of claims for fees for maternity medical services of all kinds, with a lower percentage for deliveries, are from practitioners not on the list.
§ Mr. Carter-Jonesasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what additional training is required before a general practitioner is placed on the obstetric register.
§ Mr. MoyleThe main criterion which a general practitioner has to satisfy for admission to the obstetric list is to have held a six months' resident appointment in a hospital obstetric unit within the previous 10 years. There are, however, other criteria which he can satisfy if he has not held a six months' resident appointment. I shall send my hon. Friend a full list of the criteria governing entry to the obstetric list.
§ Mr. Carter-Jonesasked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many babies were delivered by general practitioners in the last year for which figures are available; and how many of these were delivered by general practitioners not on the obstetric register.
456W
§ Mr. MoyleThe available information is of the number of NHS maternity medical services fees paid in respect of responsibility for confinement to practitioners in England in 1977. 105,000 such fees were paid: 104,200 to doctors on the obstetric list and 800—less than 1 per cent.—to doctors not on the list. These figures are derived from a 10 per cent. sample of claims.