HC Deb 06 November 1989 vol 159 cc453-4W
Mr. Redmond

To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list the health authorities that are to be tested in the development of internal markets; what services are to be tested; and when he hopes to report on the results of the scheme.

Mrs. Virginia Bottomley

All health authorities are engaged upon development work to get ready for the first implicated in the Los Angles (California) outbreak in 1985. The Department has no information on any outbreak of listeriosis in Mexico.

contracts for health services. Subject to the passage of the necessary legislation these should be operative from April 1991. We are however funding certain authorities whose development work is more advanced. The purpose of this funding is to enable them both to progress faster and to document their experience for the benefit of those authorities who are at a less advanced stage.

The projects are for:

  • (a) the development of contracts for services between three DHAs and hospitals within their own boundaries, hospitals in other districts and with the private sector. The DHAs are Cambridge, Peterborough and Huntingdon. The project will produce regular reports of its work, the next being due in March 1990.
  • (b) the development of management contracts between four DHAs and hospitals they directly manage. The DHAs are West Norfolk and Wisbech, West Suffolk, East Suffolk, and Great Yarmouth and Waveney. The project will produce regular reports of its work, the next being due in March 1990.
  • (c) The development of service contracts between authorities in respect of flows of patients across district boundaries. The project involves all DHAs within the South Western region. The project will produce regular reports, the next being due early in 1990.

The Department is in addition funding some other projects concerned with related aspects of the "Working for Patients" proposals.