§ Chris GraylingTo ask the Secretary of State for Health whether GPs will be required to make payments to hospitals under the plans to recover NHS costs from compensation settlements. [122377]
§ Dr. LadymanSubject to parliamentary approval, the proposals in Part 3 of the Health and Social Care (Community Health and Standards) Bill will mean that anyone who makes a compensation payment to another in respect of a personal injury will also be liable to pay associated national health service costs if the injured person receives NHS hospital treatment for the injury. This will apply to general practitioners in the same way as it will to anyone else. Any NHS costs payable will be in addition to the compensation payment made, not recovered from it.
§ Chris GraylingTo ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what powers a local pharmaceutical committee has to remove the right of a general practitioner to dispense; [122500]
(2) if he will make a statement on the powers to reclassify areas covered by dispensing doctors from rural to urban under the NHS Pharmaceutical Regulations Act 1992. [122501]
§ Ms Rosie WintertonNational health service primary care trusts (PCTs) determine whether an area is rural in character, which is a key element in deciding whether or not a doctor can provide pharmaceutical services to certain of their patients. Such determinations can be appealed.
539WA PCT can revisit a determination at any time where a substantial change of circumstances affecting the relevant area takes place. Otherwise, if the PCT has not considered a particular area for five years, either the local medical committee or local pharmaceutical committee can require the PCT to re-consider the area and make a fresh determination, which can likewise be appealed.