§ The Countess of Marasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether any instruction has been issued by the Department of Health to fundholding GPs that they are no longer to honour prescriptions instigated by consultants in non-NHS hospitals.
§ The Minister of State, Department of Health (Baroness Jay of Paddington)No such instruction has been issued. However, general practitioners are not obliged to continue prescribing initiated by a hospital consultant, whether National Health Service or private. It is for the GP's clinical judgment as to whether continued prescribing is appropriate for the patient, and, if so, whether he or she is prepared to take on the clinical responsibility.