§ Dr. Evan HarrisTo ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to his answer of 3 March 2003,Official Report, column 885W, on the GP Patient Survey, whether a national report will be published on the results of the survey. [102893]
§ Mr. Lammy[holding answer 17 March 2003]: There are no plans to publish a national report. Results have been disseminated on a strategic health authority (StHA) basis, allowing the cross-comparison of primary care trusts' results for local benchmarking purposes. This approach enables StHAs to maintain an overview of how results are formulated into local follow-up plans.
§ Mr. RedwoodTo ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) whether the existing duty of GPs in paragraph 43 of the terms of service to prescribe on the basis of patient need will be included in the new terms of service; [102912]
(2) what changes are proposed in the duty of GPs in the NHS to treat patients on the basis of clinical need in the proposed new contract; [102913]
(3) whether GPs will be required in their new contracts to take resources into account when recommending and prescribing treatments. [102914]
§ Mr. HuttonUnder the current general medical services (GMS) and personal medical services (PMS) contracts and under the proposed new GMS contract the fundamental principle that patients receive all of their national health service care and treatment—including prescribing and referral for specialist investigations—strictly according to their clinical needs applies.
The proposed new contract for GMS will, if accepted by the profession, ensure that general practitioners will be rewarded for the quality of services they provide: not just the number of patients they treat.