HC Deb 15 March 1993 vol 221 cc10-1W
Mr. Alfred Morris

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what additional resources will be made available to health authorities to allow them to ensure that no patients are kept waiting for treatment until the new financial year if they are in priority need.

Mr. Sackville

The Government have invested an additional £2.5 billion in the national health service this year and patients who require urgent treatment will be given proper priority. The Government also plan to invest a further £1 billion for 1993–94 which is equivalent to a further 190,000 more in patients and day patients and 1 million extra patient contacts by community nurses.

Mr. Nicholas Winterton

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment she has made of the extent to which district health authorities have exhausted resources to fund other non-emergency treatment and operations for patients from non-fund holding practices for the remainder of the current financial year; and what effect she forecasts this will have upon waiting lists and other objectives of the patients charter.

Mr. Sackville

Regional health authorities are responsible for monitoring district health authorities. Where hospitals have completed their routine contracted work before the end of the financial year patients have been treated earlier than they would otherwise have been. Emergencies are not affected and urgent cases are given proper priority. Waiting times and patients charter guarantees remain unchanged.

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