HC Deb 04 December 1996 vol 286 cc684-5W
Mr. Kirkwood

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what was the average amount spent on drugs and pharmaceutical products by(a) fundholding general practitioners and (b) non-fundholding general practitioners in each of the last three years; and if he will make a statement. [7289]

Mr. Malone

The available information is given in the table. Partly because of restrictions on which general practitioners can become fundholders, fundholding GPs have much bigger list sizes than non-fundholding GPs. This means that their average expenditure on drugs is higher than that of non-fundholding GPs. However, spend on drugs and pharmaceutical products by fundholding general practitioners tends to be less per patient than the spend by non-fundholding general practitioners. The difference is about 6 per cent. on average.

Data on prescribing per patient are available in the Health Select Committee evidence, question D3, copies of which are available in the Library.

Average expenditure on drugs per GP (£000, net ingredient cost)
1993–94 1994–95 1995–96
Fundholding GPs 121 130 138
Non-fundholding GPs 109 117 123

1. The data are from the prescribing analysis cost system generated by the Prescription Pricing Authority, and include drugs and appliances dispensed in the community. All the figures are in net ingredient cost per GP.

2. The data take no account of changes of status of GPs (from non-fundholding to fundholding) between years.

Mr. Kirkwood

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what was the amount spent on drugs and pharmaceutical products by general practitioners in each regional health authority in each year since 1992; and if he will make a statement. [7292]

Mr. Malone

Information for the areas covered by the eight regional offices of the national health service executive is shown in the table:

Expenditure by region (£ million net ingredient cost)
1992–93 1993–94 1994–95 1995–96
Northern and Yorkshire 428.4 468.1 505.0 541.4
Trent 285.3 317.0 346.6 372.8
Anglia and Oxford 263.9 292.2 319.2 338.7
North Thames 405.3 450.6 493.0 518.3
South Thames 388.5 430.9 472.5 500.9
South and West 385.5 421.6 459.6 495.1
West Midlands 319.0 348.8 378.7 399.5
North West 425.5 463.1 499.3 538.7

The data are from the prescribing analysis cost system generated by the Prescription Pricing Authority, and include drugs and appliances dispensed in the community. Data for the former regional health authorities have been adjusted to the new regional office areas.