§ 33. Mr. Marquandasked the Minister of Health what proportion of the total capital expenditure by hospital authorities in the current financial year he estimates will be met from non-Exchequer funds.
§ Mr. Iain MacleodAbout 7 per cent.
§ Mr. MarquandCan the right hon. Gentleman say whether that percentage has tended to rise in recent years?
§ Mr. MacleodIt is too early to say yet, because it has hardly been running for a full year. I should think that it will tend to rise, because some of the big schemes involved clearly take some time to prepare.
§ 34. Mr. Marquandasked the Minister of Health what proportion of the total capital expenditure by hospital authorities in the current, and the coming, financial year, respectively, he expects to be devoted to projects directly concerned with mental health and mental deficiency.
§ Mr. Iain MacleodI expect that the figure for the current financial year will be about 28 per cent. I have not yet received hospital board programmes for next year, but at least 20 per cent, of the total sum expected to be available is likely to be spent on centrally financed works at mental and mental deficiency hospitals, and the overall percentage therefore is likely to be higher than this year.
§ Mr. K. RobinsonIs the right hon. Gentleman aware that this proportion is still inadequate, in view of the fact that over 40 per cent. of the total number of hospital beds are devoted to mental and mentally deficient patients? Will he continue to use his best endeavours to step up this percentage?
§ Mr. MacleodYes, but if the hon. Member will study my answer he will find that the percentage expected next year is about 36 per cent., and if one takes into account the fact that many special departments are not required in mental hospitals it would appear that this bears a very good relationship to the provision of beds under the Service.
§ Mr. BlenkinsopWould not the Minister agree that it is perhaps unwise to concentrate entirely upon a percentage, because quite a large percentage of a small sum is still a small sum?
§ 35. Mr. Marquandasked the Minister of Health how the capital allocation to hospital authorities in the current financial year compares, allowing for changes in costs in the meantime, with the expenditure on hospital building in the year 1938 or any other convenient year before the last war.
§ Mr. Iain MacleodI estimate that the average capital expenditure on hospitals in England and Wales in the three financial years immediately before the last war was about three times the allocation for the current year.
§ Mr. MarquandIn view of the considerable increase in population since then, together with the heavy war damage and the creation of new towns which at present have no hospital facilities, would not the right hon. Gentleman agree that the nation really cannot be satisfied with the present position?
§ Mr. MacleodI have made great use of these figures over a long period. What they show—and it is no credit to any of us—is that in the 1930s we were doing three times as much hospital building as either Government has been able to achieve since the National Health Service came into operation.
§ Mr. WilkinsWill the right hon. Gentleman undertake to consult the Minister of Education to see if he can ascertain the methods adopted by that Minister in order to get a reversal of the Government's policy on that subject?
§ Mr. MellishIs the Minister aware that this is a very serious problem, because we are merely holding on to what we have, rather than making any progress, as a result of not being given the money for capital expenditure? Will the Minister take up this very serious matter with his right hon. Friend?
§ 38. Mr. Masonasked the Minister of Health what action is being taken by his Department to cut down the time lag now existing between schemes of capital expenditure on new hospitals being approved and the actual starting of these new projects.
§ Mr. Iain MacleodI am not sure what the hon. Member has in mind. I know of no undue delays between authorisation and starting of hospital capital projects.
§ Mr. MasonIs not the Minister aware that, during the period 1948–53, the Sheffield Regional Hospital Board underspent its allocation by over £700,000—
§ Mr. MellishIt ought to be shot.
§ Mr. Mason—and that one of the main reasons is that it has been waiting for the signal from the Minister to start hospital projects which have been approved for many years and is now waiting for an extra financial allocation in order to be able to start them?
§ Mr. MacleodThat is a rather different point. That arose before authorisation. Now that there is no starting date control, there is nothing at all to stop a scheme going ahead once it has been authorised.
§ Mr. MarquandAfter a scheme has been worked out by the management committee, approved by the regional 1372 board and vetted by the officials of the Ministry of Health, has it then to be vetted once more by Treasury officials?
§ Mr. MacleodIt depends on the size of the scheme.
§ 58. Dr. Strossasked the Minister of Health whether he is aware that many hospitals have been compelled to allocate funds for capital expenditure on plant and buildings, other than those received from the Exchequer; and what steps he proposes to take to relieve hospitals of this burden.
§ Mr. Iain MacleodI do not regard the amount of capital expenditure from hospital non-Exchequer funds as disproportionate to the capital expenditure from the Exchequer.
§ Dr. StrossDoes not the Minister agree that this bears very grievously on those hospitals which particularly wish to make progress and which happen to be fortunate enough to have some funds? The type of fund they are now receiving, which ought to come from the Exchequer, is not, of course, recoverable, and cannot be used over and over again.
§ Mr. MacleodThe fact that all hospitals have not got substantial non-Exchequer funds is surely no reason for stopping those which have from using them for the benefit of their patients.
§ Mr. Blenkinsop rose—
§ Sir T. MooreOn a point of order. While admitting that the hon. Member for Newcastle-upon-Tyne, East (Mr. Blenkinsop) may have special claims on health Questions, will you recall, Mr. Speaker, that he already has had 11 questions which represent one-quarter of the normal amount allowed to this House at Question time?
§ Mr. SpeakerI thought that the hon. Gentleman was going to ask a supplementary question.