HL Deb 06 April 1989 vol 505 cc1297-8WA
Lord Rippon of Hexham

asked Her Majesty's Government:

What plans they have to adapt the proposals in the White Paper Working for Patients (Cmnd. 555) to meet the special circumstances of doctors in sparsely populated rural areas where there is little possibility of increasing the number of patients and where individuals visits are more important than time spent in surgeries.

Lord Henley

The Government recognise, as paragraph 7.3 ofWorking for Patients states, that special arrangements are needed for family doctor practices in thinly populated rural areas. A new rural supplement to basic practice allowance is proposed to replace the existing rural practice payments scheme. The intention is to recompense more effectively family doctors in rural areas for their reduced ability to increase list size as well as for other aspects of rural practice, for example the higher than average time spent on home visits. The details are set out in Appendix B of General Practice in the NHS: A New Contract which has been sent to all general practitioners.