§ Mr. Dobsonasked the Secretary of State for Social Services whether any regional health authority has taken into account districts' budgeted income from private patients and other charges in its resource allocations for any year since 1979; and whether his Department has issued any guidance on this subject.
§ Mr. Kenneth Clarke:We have issued no general guidance to regional health authorities on the treatment of 178W income to districts in determining resource allocations, and we do not collect full and detailed information about Regions' practice in this respect. Our recent guidance on income from blood handling charges does, however, ask for such income to be used to help increase plasma production, and regions will need to take this into account when distributing resources to districts.