§ Mr. LoughtonTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment his Department has made of the impact of the end of GP fundholding on the provision of physiotherapy outpatient services for patients in West Sussex. [56642]
§ Mr. Milburn[holding answer 26 October 1998]: The Government are committed to building on those elements of the general practitioner fundholding scheme that worked and to extending them to the whole community. Where benefits have been achieved for patients the aim will be to maintain and spread these advantages under the arrangements for shifting fundholders' responsibilities to primary care groups (PCGs) and health authorities.
Whether services, such as physiotherapy, are affordable within the resources available to a PCG will be for the PCG to decide, taking into account equality of opportunity of access to services. The West Sussex Health Authority is concerned to work with its PCGs to offer continuity in services, if at all possible. A first step will be identifying their range and cost. The health authority will then be discussing with each PCG the relative priority they will place on them.