19.
asked the Secretary of State for Social Services what consideration has been given to the creation of an inspectorate to recommend and monitor economies in the National Health Service.
In our consultative paper "Patients First" we have referred to the possibility of establishing in each of one or two regions on an experimental basis an advisory group of experienced National Health Service officers with responsibility for monitoring the quality and efficiency of the ways in which health services are managed. We shall consider whether to mount experiments on these lines in the light of comments received.
25.
asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he is satisfied with the current level of public spending on the National Health Service.
31.
asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he is satisfied with the current level of public expenditure in the National Health Service.
Public spending on the National Health Service has to be geared to what the country can afford and I am satisfied that at present the economy would not sustain more. The Government's public expenditure plans for 1980–81, published on 1 November, indicate an increase in spending on the Health Service of some 3 per cent. next year over the latest estimate of the current year.
49.
asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he is satisfied with the current national expenditure on the National Health Service; and how it compares per head of population with Sweden, West Germany, Switzerland and the United States of America.
I give below an index of total health expenditure per head of the population for 1974, the latest year for which reliable figures are available:
| United Kingdom | … | 100 |
| United States of America | … | 293 |
| West Germany | … | 248 |
| Sweden | … | 296 |
| Switzerland | … | 196 |
| Source: OECD 1977. | ||