asked the Minister for Health if he has an overall plan for the future of the health services in this country.
Written Answers. - Health Services Future.
47.
I have been operating to a plan since I became Minister for Health. The broad strategies of that plan were set out in the Government policy statement on which we fought the general election. I have, for example, proceeded with a planned rationalisation of the acute hospital services and followed the guidelines set out in Planning for the Future so far as the psychiatric services are concerned. The mental handicap services and the geriatric services are being reviewed. I have established a Health Promotion Unit in my Department whose work will be guided by a Health Advisory Council and a Cabinet Sub-Committee of which I am Chairman.
For the future general consensus on the direction of future health policy reached at a national conference in November 1987 on my Department's discussion document Health — The Wider Dimensions together with the basic tenets of the World Health Organisation's Health for All by the Year 2000 will be central to the development of a medium term strategic plan.
The core question of funding, its extent, sources and arrangements which must be central to that future strategy is under examination by the Commission on Health Funding which I established last summer and which will report later in the year