§ Mr. Dobsonasked the Prime Minister, further to her answer to the hon. Member for Holborn and St. Pancras on Monday, 10 June, Official Report, column 304. (1) whether the discussions referred to were initiated by officials of the Department of Health and Social Security or the administrators of the Portsmouth and South East Hampshire health authority;
(2) whether Department of Health and Social Services officials put forward the possibility of any relaxation of financial restraint or additional funding in the event of the health authority contracting out management of a hospital.
§ The Prime MinisterAs I explained in my previous reply, Ministers are always interested in examining options for improving the management of NHS hospitals. Contracting out the management of a hospital is one such option and officials of the Department acting on behalf of Ministers got in touch with the Administrator of the health authority to see if he was interested in this approach.
Obviously the Department of Health and Social Security would not have offered financial inducements to the health authority to contract out management of a hospital, since the whole object of doing so would be to obtain better value for money in the provision of services.