§ Mr. Gordon PrenticeTo ask the Secretary of State for Health how much money is to be made available to family health service authorities to enable them to make payments to general practitioners' practices which contain their prescribing costs. [21667]
§ Mr. MaloneWe made £1.7 million available to health authorities to meet the cost of payments to non-fundholding general practitioner practices in respect of prescribing incentive schemes which operated in 1993–94. These payments, which are directly related to the reduction in prescribing expenditure achieved, are used to improve patient services.