§ Mr. MealeTo ask the Secretary of State for Health if she will make it her policy that the prioritisation of patients needing treatment should depend on their relative clinical needs rather than the financial circumstances of their general practitioners' budgets.
§ Dr. MawhinneyThe Department and the joint consultants committee of the British Medical Association issued joint guidance in 1991 stating that all emergencies should be seen immediately, and that there should be common waiting lists for urgent cases. National Health Service Management Executive guidance states that all urgent cases should be given appropriate clinical priority. This was most recently set out in Sir Duncan Nichol's letter to the NHS dated 24 February, EL(94)19, copies of which will be placed in the Library.
§ Mr. MealeTo ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) if it is Government policy that medical surgeons should be prevented from giving patients the treatment they need because of financial management;
(2) if she will make a statement on the recent findings from the survey of surgeons of the Royal College of Surgeons of England on the number of surgical divisions which had been told to stop or reduce activity.
§ Dr. MawhinneyThere is no evidence of reduced activity. Overall activity is in fact forecast to increase this year. No hospitals have stopped admissions and cases continue to be treated according to clinical priority. All emergencies continue to be treated immediately.