§ Mr. JackTo ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement setting out the timetable he will now be following to introduce the pilot schemes under primary care legislation. [6748]
§ Mr. MilburnWe propose to establish a range of pilots concerned with improving the direct provision of personal medical services from 1 April 1998. In order to give everyone equal opportunity to consider how local 407W initiatives can be best taken forward, we have extended the closing date by which formal applications have to be with health authorities by one month. We also propose to establish a number of personal dental services pilots in October 1998 to test new ways of delivering primary care dentistry and addressing local oral health priorities.
The revised timetable for the implementation of the personal medical services pilots is given in the table.
Closing date Formal applications for salaried service employment and practice based contracts, which have been consulted on, to be with health authorities by 1 November 1997 Notification of approval from the Secretary of State December 1997 Negotiations of local contracts December—March 1998 Pilots for salaried service employment and practice based contracts to begin 1 April 1998