HC Deb 12 January 1988 vol 125 cc247-8W
35. Mr. Bellingham

To ask the Secretary of State for Social Services what measures he intends to take to increase competition between family doctors.

64. Mr. Riddick

To ask the Secretary of State for Social Services what effect the proposals in the White Paper "Promoting Better Health" will have on competition in the family practitioner services.

Mr. Newton

The proposals in the White Paper "Promoting Better Health" (Cm. 249) will stimulate competition within the family practitioner services in a number of ways. These include plans to increase the proportion of a doctor's income which is derived from capitation fees in order to encourage doctors to practise in ways which meet patients' needs. We will seek to relate doctors' pay more closely to individual performance and to the range of services they provide to patients, for example through incentive payments for reaching targets in preventive medicine. Procedures for changing doctor will be simplified. The Government will also be discussing with the dental profession the possibilities for change in the general dental practitioners' remuneration system with a view to introducing new incentives both for high efficiency and high standards of care.

The White Paper set out measures to improve information to patients so that they are able to make an informed choice of family doctor and dentists. Family practitioner committees will be required to improve information about local practitioners on their lists and to make the lists more widely available. Practices will be encouraged to provide informative leaflets to their patients. Among the proposals for a revised contract for general dental practitioners recently put to the profession was a requirement for dentists to explain proposed treatment plans and their probable cost to patients.

The Government will be discussing the reduction of restraints on advertising by doctors with the General Medical Council and welcome the steps taken by the Director General of Fair Trading to consult interested organisations on the terms of a proposal to refer the restrictions on dental advertising to the Monopolies and Mergers Commission.

In respect of opticians, the principle of greater competition which already applies for the sale of spectacles will be extended to the provision of sight tests.