§ Mr. CousinsTo ask the Secretary of State for Health how the cash allocation system to regions and family practitioner committees outlined in his letter to hon. Members of 20 October will calculate and weight the number and needs of chronically sick patients.
§ Mrs. Virginia BottomleyAllocations for the hospital and community health services will continue to be based on the size, age and health of regions' populations. This will ensure that regional health authority budgets take account of the presence of chronically sick patients, by the use of a proxy measure of morbidity and higher cost-weightings for elderly people living in the region.
Allocations to RHAs in respect of the indicative prescribing budget scheme will not be cash-limited. GPs will, as now, be able to prescribe any clinically necessary medication for their patients.
§ Mr. CousinsTo ask the Secretary of State for Health how the contracts district health authorities will make with providers of patient services will reflect given levels and quality of service as outlined in his letter to hon. Members of 20 October.
§ Mr. Kenneth ClarkeThe level and quality of services to be provided will be agreed between the district health authority and the provider and specified in the contract. The degree of precision used will increase over time as health authorities become more expert at assessing their population's requirements, as information about hospital activity improves and as better-quality measures are developed. My Department will assist this process by providing guidance and disseminating examples of good practice. However, even the simplest contracts will make much clearer than now what services are to be provided in return for a particular level of funding. Patients can only benefit as a result.