§ Mr. Meacherasked the Secretary of State for Social Services (1) whether it is permissible for general practitioners to include hours on call and hours spent in surgery administration as hours worked when claiming basic practice allowances;
(2) what are the conditions under which general practitioners can claim basic practice allowances; and what is the minimum number of hours needed to be spent with patients.
§ Mr. Kenneth ClarkeA general practitioner is eligible for the full rate of basic practice allowance if:
- a. he provides general medical services and has 1,000 or more patients on his ordinary list or, if he is a member of a partnership, the average list is at least 1,000 patients per practitioner; and
- b. he is in the opinion of the responsible family pratitioner committee devoting a substantial amount of time to general practice under the National Health Service.
Condition (b) may be satisfied partly by surgery sessions and partly by home visiting. The condition will normally be met where services given by the doctor to his patients, whether in surgery or in the home, amount on average over the year to 20 hours per week at times which are reasonably spread over the normal working week. Where condition (b) is not satisfied and/or the practitioner has between 100 and 999 patients the amount of the allowance is reduced by an appropriate proportion. Doctors with lists of fewer than 100 patients are not eligible for basic practice allowance.