§ Mr. CousinsTo ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on the projects in Yorkshire and Trent regions studying the extension of general practitioner fundholding to the community care services; when he expects the project to be complete; and what other extensions of the general practitioner fundholding concept are under consideration.
§ Mrs. Virginia BottomleyThe Yorkshire project is exploring the benefits to patients of co-locating health and social care services in a fundholding practice. The Trent project will consider the options for including within the general practice funding scheme community health services, some aspects of social care and other hospital services. The second year of this project will pilot some of the options developed in the first year.
531WBoth projects are expected to be complete in spring 1993. We are also piloting the extension of the fundholding scheme to practices with a list size of less than 9,000 patients.