§ Mr. BattleTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of the possibility of the new standard capitation fees for general practitioners, proposed in "General Practice in the National Health Service—A New Contract", leading to general practitioners screening out patients before taking them on in their practice; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. MellorOur intention to increase standard capitation fees is an important part of our proposals for a new contract for GPs. By increasing capitation payments as a proportion of a GP's income we will encourage GPs to recognise the importance of providing full services that will attract patients to their lists and keep them with the practice. In the case of patients aged 75 and over, we will be paying a much higher capitation fee than before. These measures will introduce a degree of competition in general practice which has not existed before and will, we believe, reduce rather than increase the likelihood that GPs will refuse to accept patients onto their lists. If any patient has difficulty in being accepted onto a GP's list the family practitioner committee has and will continue to have the power to assign the patient to a particular GP.
§ Mr. BattleTo ask the Secretary of State for Health on what assumptions on future numbers of(a) surgery sessions, (b) doctors' clinics and (c) general practitioners, his proposals for the introduction of capitation arrangements in "General Practice in the National Health Service—A New Contract" are based.
§ Mr. MellorThe examples at appendix F of "General Practice in the National Health Service: A New Contract" are intended to illustrate in broad terms the effect of the proposed new contract on the remuneration of the average GP with a list size of a specified level. The notes on each example explain the assumptions made about the number of minor surgery sessions and health promotion clinics which the average GP with the list size specified in each case might undertake. No assumption has been made about the number of GPs as this does not affect the figures.