§ Lord Shepherdasked Her Majesty's Government:
How they will ensure that hospitals, given the new system of charging for capital borrowed, do not economise on the replacement of equipment in such a way as to prevent the best quality of service being provided.
§ Lord HenleyCapital allocations to health authorities each year will be unaffected by the new system of capital charges, so directly managed hospitals will continue to have access to capital funds for replacement assets. Similar arrangements will apply to self-governing hospitals.
Capital charges payable by hospitals to regional health authorities on assets in use will be recycled back by regions in higher revenue allocations to district health authorities to finance the supply of hospital services.