To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many staff in respect of whom 70 per cent. of salaries were reimbursed were employed by general practitioners in England and Wales at the most recent convenient date.
At 1 April 1992 there were 79,092 whole and part-time staff employed by general practitioners in England, whose salary costs were reimbursed in whole or part by family health services authorities (FHSAs). From 1 April 1990 FHSAs have had discretion to vary the level of reimbursement taking account of all relevant factors. Information on practitioners' staff in Wales is a matter for my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Wales.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health if she will publish figures showing the number of general practitioner trainers and the number of general practitioner trainees, together with the cost per annum, for each of the years since 1980.
The information is shown in the table.
| Year | Trainers | Trainees | Grants to trainers | Trainee salaries and expenses |
| 1980 | 1,856 | 1,353 | 2,483,956·09 | 9,917,847·78 |
| 1981 | 2,040 | 1,561 | 3,668,541·79 | 15,338,492·27 |
| 1982 | 2,236 | 1,577 | 4,823,773·39 | 19,313,059·64 |
| 1983 | 2,335 | 1,624 | 5,564,119·18 | 21,286,172·31 |
| 1984 | 2,370 | 1,703 | 5,694,568·18 | 23,767,572·27 |
| 1985 | 2,451 | 1,758 | 5,886,779·28 | 26,475,607·37 |
| 1986 | 2,496 | 1,654 | 6,242,737·30 | 28,517,366·98 |
| 1987 | 2,527 | 1,710 | 6,356,385·12 | 30,669,887·79 |
| 1988 | 2,469 | 1,685 | 6,470,457·00 | 33,358,905·00 |
| 1989 | 2,472 | 1,735 | 6,928,037·00 | 36,449,935·00 |
| 1990 | 2,726 | 1,562 | 7,735,844·00 | 40,457,508·00 |
| 1991 | 2,824 | 1,639 | 7,939,576·00 | 42,264,385·00 |
| 1992 | 2,940 | 1,613 | 8,162,085·00 | 46,083,103·00 |
Notes:
Financial data relates to the period ending 31 March each year and is taken from summarised accounts.
Data relating to numbers is at 1 October each year and the 1992 figure is provisional.
All data relates to England only.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health on how many occasions general practitioners provided maternity services, and what payments were made to them, in respect of (a) complete care, (b) ante-natal care only, (c) confinement only, (d) pre-natal care and (e) miscarriage, in each year since 1980.
Information on maternity medical services is not available centrally at the level requested. The gross cost of maternity medical services in England since 1980 is shown in the table.
| General medical services—maternity medical services fees | |
| Maternity medical services (£000s) | |
| 1979–80 | 19,072 |
| 1980–81 | 25,643 |
| 1981–82 | 28,238 |
| 1982–83 | 30,423 |
| 1983–84 | 32,399 |
| 1984–85 | 36,868 |
| 1985–86 | 41,580 |
| 1986–87 | 42,948 |
| 1987–88 | 48,564 |
| 1988–89 | 53,733 |
| 1989–90 | 57,983 |
| 1990–91 | 65,945 |
| 1991–92 | 69,045 |
To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many night visits were undertaken by general practitioners; and what expenditure was incurred by such visits in (a) the higher rates and (b) the lower rates for deputising services.
The cost and estimated number of night visits in each financial year since 1980 is shown in the table.
| General medical services—night visit fees | |||
| Year | Night visit payment £ million | Night visit fee £ million | Number of visits |
| 1979–80 | 3,812 | 6·75 | 564,700 |
| 1980–81 | 6,059 | 10·50 | 577,032 |
| 1981–82 | 7,226 | 11·80 | 612,399 |
| 1982–83 | 8,278 | 12·75 | 649,292 |
| 1983–84 | 9,023 | 13·24 | 681,531 |
| 1984–85 | 10,510 | 14·70 | 714,941 |
| 1985–86 | 12,402 | 15·55 | 797,524 |
| 1986–87 | 12,282 | 16·10 | 762,828 |
| 1987–88 | 14,185 | 17·20 | 824,732 |
| 1988–89 | 16,922 | 18·75 | 902,480 |
| 1989–90 | 18,958 | 20·25 | 936,187 |
| 1990–91 | |||
| Higher | 49,275 | 45·00 | 1,095,003 |
| Lower | 6,725 | 15·00 | 448,303 |
| 1991–92 | |||
| Higher | 52,198 | 45·00 | 1,159,956 |
| Lower | 8,376 | 15·00 | 558,428 |
To ask the Secretary of State for Health what was the total expenditure incurred in each of the years 1990, 1991 and 1992 in respect of additional payments made to general practitioners for (a) meeting target figures respectively, for immunisation and cervical smears, (b) health promotion clinics, (c) new patient check-ups, (d) minor surgery, (e) teaching medical students, (f) vaccination and immunisation fees and (g) contraception treatments, giving respectively, annual fees for ordinary and intra-uterine device treatment.
The information for years 1990–91 and 1991–92 on an accruals basis is shown in the table. The 1992–93 data are not yet available.
| Expenditure on selected items All figures taken from the summarised accounts | |||
| 1990–91 £ million | 1991–92 £ million | ||
| (a) Targets | |||
| Childhood immunisation | Higher | 35·602 | 38·257 |
| Lower | 3·636 | 1·556 | |
| Pre-school boosters | Higher | 11·108 | 10·916 |
| Lower | 1·507 | 0·860 | |
| Cervical cytology | Higher | 42·423 | 46·262 |
| Lower | 6·543 | 3·052 | |
| (b) Health promotion | 44·309 | 64·024 | |
| (c) Registration (new patient checkups) | 15·264 | 19·955 | |
| (d) Minor surgery | 16·645 | 21·324 | |
| (e) Teaching students | 7·940 | 8·162 | |
| (f) Vaccination and immunisation | 33·746 | 24·405 | |
| (g) Contraception | |||
| Ordinary (£12·75)1 | 37·634 | 39·923 | |
| IUD (£42·75)1 | 4·461 | 4·343 | |
| 1 Annual fees 1990–91 and 1991–92. | |||
To ask the Secretary of State for Health if she will list the average income of a general practitioner in England and Wales for each year since 1980.
The average net income of general practitioners in Great Britain is listed together with the average gross income of general practitioners in England. Average net income for England and Wales separately is not available. Information on GPs in Wales is a matter for my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Wales.
| Information on GP income 1979–80 to 1991–92 | ||
| Average income (England) including expenses £ | Average net income (GB) excluding expenses as reported by DDRB £ | |
| 1979–80 | 19,942 | 11,902 |
| 1980–81 | 28,306 | 15,608 |
| 1981–82 | 31,775 | 17,793 |
| 1982–83 | 35,075 | 19,940 |
| 1983–84 | 37,092 | 20,404 |
| 1984–85 | 41,483 | 22,687 |
| 1985–86 | 44,241 | 23,849 |
| 1986–87 | 46,221 | 24,601 |
| 1987–88 | 50,148 | 26,508 |
| 1988–89 | 55,380 | 28,979 |
| 1989–90 | 61,266 | 31,388 |
| 1990–91 | 76,045 | 137,204 |
| 1991–92 | 187,873 | n/a |
| 1 Provisional figures. | ||
To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many general practitioner practices are now general practitioner fund holders; and how many individual general practitioners that figure embraces.
At 31 March 1993 there were over 3,000 general practitioners in 585 GP practices in the GP fund holding scheme. Final figures are not yet available for 1993–94 but provisional figures show more than double this number of GP practices have been offered and have accepted budgets from 1 April 1993.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health what information she has as to the range of surpluses accumulated by general practitioner fund-holding practices during the most convenient recent period.
In 1991–92 general practitioner fund holders nationally achieved surpluses on their budget of about four per cent. Regional averages ranged from 9·1 per cent. to 1·5 per cent.