§ 48. Mr. Galleyasked the Secretary of State for Social Services whether he has any plans to improve the monitoring of health authorities performance.
§ Mr. NewtonThe Department monitors regional health authorities' performance in a range of ways including scrutiny of regions' strategies and annual short-term programmes and implementation report; statistical and financial returns, and performance indicators. These information sources have been used in annual accountability reviews between Ministers and regional chairmen, supplemented this year by performance reviews held between the National Health Service management board 203W and regional general managers. Next year we plan further developments to the review system. The introduction of new information systems for the National Health Service in April 1987 will also improve the timeliness and relevance of statistical returns, which in turn will assist the development of an improved performance indicator package.