The text on this page has been created from Hansard archive content, it may contain typographical errors.
Ms Primarolo
To ask the Secretary of State for Health if she will list the benefits to patients available from GP fund-holding practices relative to non-fund-holding practices.
Mr. Sackville
Fund-holding is one of the major successes of the national health service reforms and the improvements secured by fund-holders are extending widely to benefit patients in non-fund-holding practices. We are delighted at how both general practitioner fund-holders and district health authorities are seizing the opportunities of the new NHS to secure more appropriate, high-quality care for patients.
Among the benefits are shorter waiting times, better liaison between hospitals and community services when patients are discharged and more services provided in GP surgeries.