asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if, in view of the increasing use of deputising services, he will take steps to ensure the same standards of continuity of medical care in community medical services as in hospital practice.

Yes. The terms of service for doctors and the Department's guidance on general practitioner deputising services both require family practitioner committees to be satisfied as to the acceptability of deputising arrangements. The code of practice for deputising services states that satisfactory arrangements must be made for any follow-up of the cases by the deputising service itself and for reporting action taken to the patient's own doctor at the end of the period of deputising.