§ Mr. William PowellTo ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement about National Health Service charges and spectacle vouchers.
§ Mr. Kenneth ClarkeI will shortly be laying before the House regulations for increases in prescription charges in the National Health Service in England and Wales to come into effect on 1 April 1989. The prescription charge will increase by 20p from £2.60 to £2.80. This increase of 7.7 per cent. reflects the higher costs of the pharmaceutical services and will provide an extra £10 million in income helping us to increase the total resources available to the Health Service in England and Wales by the equivalent of over £2 billion next year. The new charge will continue to represent less than half the cost of an average prescription to the NHS. Under existing exemption arrangements over three quarters of prescriptions are provided free of charge, and these arrangements will continue. The new charges are therefore only likely to be levied on less than a quarter of all prescriptions.
The four-monthly and annual prepayment certificate fees will increase from £13.50 and £37.50 to £14.50 and £40.00 respectively.
The charges for elastic stockings and tights, wigs and fabric supports supplied through the hospital service will also be increased from 1 April, as shown in table A.
From the same date, we will be making regulations under the powers now available to us in the Health and Medicines Act to extend the system of fully proportional charges for dental treatment to include dentures and bridges, which are currently on a fixed scale of charges. This means that all charges for dental treatment, including dentures and bridges, in the general dental service, and dentures and bridges in the hospital service, will be on a uniform charging basis as a fixed proportion of cost.
Also from 1 April, the values of spectacle vouchers will increase by around 4.5 per cent. but vouchers for those with the poorest sight and who need the most expensive glasses are to increase by 10 per cent. Voucher values for the hospital eye service will rise by the same amount with the exception of the voucher for contact lenses which remains unchanged. The NHS charge for contact lenses prescribed through the hospital eye service will rise from 1 April to equal the voucher value of £26.50. The revised voucher values are shown at table B.
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Table A New hospital service charges from 1 April 1989 (Present charges in brackets): Elastic stockings and tights, wigs and fabric supports £ £ Each elastic stocking 2.80 (2.60) Tights supplied through the hospital service 5.60 a pair (5.20 a pair) Stock modacrylic wig 24.00 (22.00) Partial human hair wig 62.00 (58.00) Full bespoke human hair wig 97.00 (90.00) Surgical brassiere 12.00 (11.00) Spinal or Abdominal support 16.00 (15.00)
Table B NHS spectacle voucher values from 1 April 1989 (present values in brackets) Voucher £ £ A 17.00 (16.25) B 28.00 (27.00) C 46.00 (44.00) D 32.75 (31.00) E 58.00 (52.50) F 98.00 (89.00) G Hospital 98.00 (89.00) H eye service 26.50 per lens (26.50) Complex 3.25 (3.00) lenses 18.00 (17.00) Prisms per lens 3.75 single vision (3.50) 4.75 bifocal (4.50) Tints both lenses 3.80 single vision (3.50) 4.80 bifocal (4.50) Photochromic 3.80 single vision (3.50) both lenses (Hospital eye service) 4.80 bifocal (4.50) Small frame supplement 33.00 (31.50)
Total population 1979 1980 1981 1982 Mid year 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 Basingstoke and Deane 127,300 129,000 131,000 132,100 134,000 136,300 137,600 137,891 138,418 East Hants 87,800 89,600 91,600 91,700 93,600 95,000 97,000 97,760 100,210 Eastleigh 89,200 91,200 93,000 94,000 96,000 97,600 99,000 99,523 99,882 Fareham 87,000 88,000 89,000 88,200 90,800 92,600 94,200 95,705 98,154 Gosport 77,400 78,300 77,800 77,200 77,100 77,200 77,800 77,513 83,294 Hart 73,900 76,000 76,300 76,800 77,200 79,000 80,200 81,283 83,294 Havant 115,200 115,300 115,700 115,700 116,600 117,400 118,500 118,918 118,789 New Forest 142,300 144,100 145,500 146,200 149,000 151,800 155,600 159,000 161,250 Portsmouth 191,900 190,200 191,400 191,000 191,600 188,600 187,900 186,884 188,822 Rushmoor 79,700 79,800 80,600 80,400 79,400 80,600 81,400 79,145 77,671 Southampton 211,300 209,900 209,900 207,400 206,300 203,900 202,300 200,501 199,071 Test Valley 91,500 92,100 93,700 94,100 95,500 97,100 98,700 99,335 100,399 Winchester 90,600 91,800 93,000 92,800 92,300 92,400 93,700 94,208 95,612
Local government electorate1 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 Basingstoke and Deane 88,897 90,810 92,905 95,287 97,494 99,964 102,286 103,724 104,967 106,299 East Hampshire 63,104 64,452 65,884 67,644 69,034 70,942 72,087 73,579 74,463 76,592 Eastleigh 65,269 67,598 69,280 71,126 72,546 74,481 75,579 76,716 77,827 78,277 Fareham 62,441 63,911 64,989 66,633 67,977 69,328 70,900 71,958 73,706 75,542 Gosport 52,057 53,464 54,619 55,088 55,955 56,930 57,881 57,947 57,936 58,828 Hart 50,675 52,038 53,130 54,406 55,568 56,652 57,755 58,935 60,260 62,187 Havant 83,333 84,485 85,752 86,847 87,821 89,541 90,483 91,737 92,845 93,233 New Forest 108,466 110,989 113,148 114,752 116,803 119,673 121,457 124,119 126,690 127,965 Portsmouth 137,589 137,298 138,565 139,794 140,428 141,096 142,068 142,641 142,665 142,974 Rushmoor 48,634 49,219 50,135 51,769 52,586 52,935 53,215 53,537 53,425 53,401 Southampton 159,914 159,250 159,464 160,722 159,639 159,722 159,299 159,131 158,894 158,956 Test Valley 63,255 64,528 66,111 67,263 68,198 69,527 70,928 72,617 74,253 75,713 Winchester 66,350 67,270 68,583 69,808 70,557 71,001 71,618 72,760 73,603 74,738 Note: 1979–85 total populations are in rounded figures.
Source: OPCS EL Monitors and OPCS mid year estimates.
1 The electorate figures relate to registers which came into effect in February of each year, based on qualification in October of the preceding year.
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Voucher £ £ Supplement for special facial characteristics (Hospital eye service) 33.00 (31.50)