HC Deb 08 November 1989 vol 159 cc645-6W
Mr. Barry Jones

To ask the Secretary of State for Wales if he will break down the distribution of the sum of money allocated for the implementation of the White Paper, "Working for Patients", by authority and by the sub-divisions as in his answer to the hon. Member for Alyn and Deeside of 31 October; and what uses he expects to be made of the cash sum for health authorities' discretionary use.

Mr. Grist

The distribution of the £1.62 million allocated for the discretionary use of health authorities in meeting the costs of implementing the White Paper "Working for Patients" during the current financial year is shown in the table:

£ million
Clwyd 0.19
East Dyfed 0.13
Gwent 0.23
Gwynedd 0.13
Mid Glamorgan 0.26
Pembrokeshire 0.07
Powys 0.08
South Glamorgan 0.29
West Glamorgan 0.20
Welsh Health Common Services Authority 0.04
1.62

The funding provided recognises the need for health authorities to strengthen their systems and staffing particularly in the fields of finance and personnel in order to meet the operational requirements of the White Paper reforms. While information is not available on the precise deployment of these additional funds—since this is a matter for each health authority to decide in the light of its own local circumstances—all authorities have confirmed that they have borne in mind the following considerations:

  1. (i) the information technology and staffing consequences of the need to introduce and maintain capital asset registers and to generate capital charges in respect of all registered assets;
  2. (ii) the staffing consequences associated with the introduction of new contractual arrangements for service provision particularly in the contract negotiation, billing, paymaster and accounting function;
    3. 646
  3. (iii) the staffing consequences associated with the need for the introduction of comprehensive (computerised) manpower management systems;
  4. (iv) the need for district co-ordinators and supporting staff etc. (as necessary) to establish medical audit as district level.

The balance of the additional £5 million which the Department has provided toward the cost of implementing the White Paper proposals in the current financial year has been reserved centrally for the various purposes outlined in the table, but it is not possible to say at the present time how much of this funding will be allocated in due course to individual health authorities.

  1. (a) £2.34 million has been earmarked in respect of authorities' information technology and resource management initiative plans under the revised Information and Information Technology Strategy for the NHS in Wales which is to be published shortly. The distribution of these funds between health authorities will be subject of detailed discussions between health authorities and my officials;
  2. (b) £0.11 million has been reserved for medical audit purposes including support for some specific projects and the appointment of a clinical adviser to head a Clinical Resource User Group and to liaise with the Welsh Advisory Group on Medical Audit;
  3. (c) £0.18 million is required for the cost this year of the Value for Money Unit which has been established to lead the drive for cost improvements and income generation, to promote opportunities for marketing NHS expertise and to advise authorities on the commercial exploitation of innovation;
  4. (d) 0.14 million has been set aside for the cost of additional training at the all Wales level of health authority personnel and finance staff and for strengthening the functions undertaken by the Manpower Consultancy Service;
  5. (e)£0.11 million has been reserved for preparatory work to enable the implementation of the White Paper proposals relating to family practitioner services. Of this sum, £0.08 million has been allocated to the family practitioner committees in Wales and £0.3 million is being used centrally to help meet the cost of appointing general managers to FPCs in Wales;
  6. (f) £0.50 million is to be used in establishing treatment centres at Bridgend, Bangor and Cardiff but it is not possible at this stage to give an accurate assessment of the distribution of this funding between the managing authorities.