§ Mr. Dobsonasked the Secretary of State for Social Services (1) if he will give for each year since 1979 (a) in both money terms and real terms the income received from private in-patients and (b) the number of such patients in each payment category;
(2) what arrangements exist to ensure that no profits accrued from national charges to private patients as a result of health authorities with relatively high private patient costs opting out of the national system and establishing their own charges;
(3) if he will list (a) those health authorities which have chosen to set their own charges to private patients for all treatment and (b) those health authorities which have chosen to set their own charges to private patients for some treatments.
§ Mrs. CurrieI shall let the hon. Member have replies as soon as possible.
§ Mr. Dobsonasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what information is available to his Department about the impact on consultants' commitment to National Health Service work of the growth of private practice.
§ Mr. NewtonI am not aware of any evidence that consultants' commitment to NHS work has been affected by the growth in private practice.
National Health Service consultants may hold whole-time, maximum part-time or part-time contracts. Whole-time consultants, who may undertake private practice limited to the value of 10 per cent. of their National Health Service salary, and maximum part-time consultants, who may undertake private practice without specific limit for a slightly lower National Health Service salary, are both expected to devote substantially the whole of their professional time to the National Health Service. Since the introduction of the current contract in 1980, there have been variations from year to year in the proportion of consultants with each type of contract, but over the period as a whole there has been a slight increase in the proportion of contracts which are whole-time.