HC Deb 11 December 1990 vol 182 cc359-61W
Mr. Hill

To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list, by regional health authority area, those general practitioner practices which have been granted fund-holding status.

Mrs. Virginia Bottomley

Formal granting of fund-holding status by regional health authorities is not expected to begin before January 1991.

Mr. Allen

To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether general practitioners are required to balance their budgets by March 1991.

Mrs. Virginia Bottomley

At present general practition-ers do not have "budgets". The general practitioner fund-holding scheme, which commences on 1 April 1991, will allow eligible practices to volunteer to receive a sum of money to purchase a range of services for their patients. Non fund-holding practices, from 1 April 1991, will be assigned an indicative prescribing amount which will relate to their drug expenditure. The indicative prescribing amount will, however, be a financial benchmark and not a cash limit.

Mr. Allen

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what evidence he has indicating trends in expenditure from general practitioners' budgets for drugs.

Mrs. Virginia Bottomley

The indicative prescribing scheme under which general practitioners will be set amounts for anticipated expenditure on drugs comes into operation on 1 April 1991. Since the introduction of PACT (prescribing analyses and cost system) in August 1988 there has been a slowdown in the rate of increase of the cost of drugs prescribed by general practitioners.