§ 35. Mr. TredinnickTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans he has to increase the amount of information available to patients in the family practitioner service.
§ Mr. MellorAs the White Paper "Promoting Better Health" (Cm. 249) makes clear, the Government believe that consumers need more detailed and more accessible factual information about family practitioners and their services. Family practitioner committee medical and dental lists will therefore contain more information and will be made more widely available locally. In addition we shall encourage the wider provision of family doctor practice leaflets.
The Government also believe that present restraints on advertising by family doctors should be removed, subject to proper safeguards, in order to make possible better informed choices by patients. We therefore welcome the announcement last May of the Office of Fair Trading's decision to refer the matter for investigation by the Monopolies and Mergers Commission.