§ 57. Mr. Fenner Brockwayasked the Minister of Health what steps are being taken to provide a new hospital to serve the district of Slough and Eton.
§ Mr. Iain MacleodProgress has been made towards securing a site but I still cannot say when it will be possible for building to start.
§ Mr. BrockwayWill the right hon. Gentleman speed up these plans? Is he aware that in the three hospitals for Windsor, Upton and Cliveden there is now a waiting list of 1,500, that several people have been waiting for months, and that the beds occupied now reach 89 per cent.? Is he aware that 17,000 more people are now coming into this district on the London County Council estates?
§ Mr. MacleodI am aware of many of those facts and, since the hon. Member draws my attention to it, I will look particularly at the waiting list. But this is a project within the competence for arranging priorities of the North-West Metropolitan Regional Hospital Board and, therefore, must compete with other projects equally desirable in that area—for example, to take an obvious instance, the new hospital in the Welwyn-Hatfield area. But I will certainly bear in mind what the hon. Member has said.
§ Mr. MasonWhat time is taken between the approval in principle of plans submitted by regional hospital boards and the actual starting of new schemes?
§ Mr. MacleodAny time that I stated would be completely misleading. It depends entirely on the stage that a particular project has reached and its priority in the plans of the regional hospital board.