§ Dr. Roger Thomasasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what would be the cost of extending throughout England the Welsh Office scheme for computerising the analysis of general practitioner prescribing, taking into account the effects such a scheme could have on redundancies among prescription pricing authority staff.
§ Dr. VaughanI presume the hon. Member is referring to the experimental computer project being undertaken jointly by the Department and the prescription pricing authority for England. The work of the project is confined to determining the feasibility and cost of capturing data from prescription forms and producing an outline systems study for pricing prescriptions and providing prescribing information. No estimate of the cost involved in prescription analysis can be made at this stage and it is too soon to say whether there will be any effect on the staffing requirements of the prescription pricing authority.