HC Deb 13 February 1989 vol 147 cc74-5W
Ms. Harman

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, under the White Paper, whether the cost of treatment will be a factor in determining where health authorities place contracts for surgical operations.

Mr. Kenneth Clarke

[holding answer 9 February 1989]: In all decisions about surgical treatment now, as throughout the history of the NHS, and in every health care system the cost of treatment is a factor, but by no means the only one.