§ 62. Mr. McCrindleTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what form recent representations on the proposals regarding prescriptions in the National Health Service White Paper have taken.
§ Mr. MellorWe have received a large number of representations in respect of the NHS White Paper plans for indicative drug budgets. These have come from a wide range of members of the community including GPs, community health councils, pharmaceutical companies, bodies representing patients suffering from chronic illness and members of the public. In response we have been able to provide unequivocal reassurances that indicative drug budgets will enable patients to receive all the drugs they require, that there will be no disincentive to GPs to accept patients requiring expensive courses of drug treatment and that there will be no change to the range or quality of appliances available to patients nor to the existing arrangements for certain categories of patients to receive free prescriptions.