§ Mr. MorganTo ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list the annual average cost of prescriptions per patient prescribed by(a) general practitioner fundholders and (b) non-fundholding general practitioners for each year since the introduction of fundholding for which the figures are available for (i) England, (ii) each regional health authority and (iii) each family health service authority. [14967]
§ Mr. MaloneThe available information is shown in the table.
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Prescribing costs (£ NIC/PU)—England GP fundholders Non GP fundholders 1991–92 9.23 9.71 1992–93 10.35 10.91 1993–94 11.47 12.05 1994–95 12.56 13.07 1995–96 (to Q2) 13.04 13.62 1. NIC/PU = net ingredient cost per prescribing unit. 2. NIC is essentially the cost of prescriptions before allowing for pharmacists' discounts and container costs. 3. PUs are a weighting used to adjust for the higher cost of drugs for older people. Each person counts as one PU for under 65-year-olds, three PUs for 65-year-olds and older. 4. The two groups (fundholding GPs/non-fundholding GPs) are not exclusive—during the period, some non fundholders will have become fundholding and vice versa.