HC Deb 17 October 1989 vol 158 cc31-2W
Mr. Robin Cook

To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will place in the Library PACT data aggregated at family practitioner level.

Mr. Mellor

We have no plans to do so. We are, however, considering what statistical information to make available to the House routinely in connection with the indicative prescribing budget scheme.

Mr. Spearing

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what consultations he has held, and what action he proposes, relating to his implementation of section 8 of working paper No. 4 concerning budgets for prescribing by general practitioners.

Mr. Kenneth Clarke

I continue to invite discussions with all interested parties on the operation of indicative drug budgets for general practitioners and I issued working paper No. 4 in order to stimulate such discussions. I held a useful discussion with representatives of the British Medical Association on 27 September at which I repeated and they accepted by assurance that the arrangements for managing the indicative prescribing budget scheme will not infringe in any way the right of a general practitioner to prescribe all those medicines which individual patients might need.

As I announced in my reply to my hon. Friend the Member for Wyre Forest (Mr. Coombs) on 24 July at column 540, a new prescribing budgets information system to implement prescribing budgets is being developed at the Prescription Pricing Authority. The system will be piloted in November 1990.

Mr. Spearing

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what current instructions he has given to family practitioner committees in respect of abnormal volumes or cost of prescribing by any of its contractor general practitioners; and in how many cases in 1988 any such matter was drawn to the attention of the relevant local medical committee.

Mr. Mellor

No guidance has yet been issued to family practitioner committees on this issue, as they do not assume the responsibility of monitoring prescribing by individual general medical practitioners until April 1990. It is not current practice to refer cases of over-prescribing to local medical committees. A new procedure for handling such cases at FPC level will be introduced as part of the implementation of the NHS review.