Out-patient Departments (Hansard, 23 June 1958)

§ 27. Mr. Randall
asked the Minister of Health, in view of increased attendances at out-patients' departments and the problem of patients' waiting, what plans he has under investigation or consideration to meet the increased needs.

§ Mr. Walker-Smith
I rely on hospital authorities to carry out, within the limits of the resources available, whatever improvements are needed in any particular area.

§ Mr. Randall
Would not the right hon. and learned Gentleman agree that this is an aspect of the National Health Service for which the additional expenditure required is well merited and well deserved?

§ Mr. Walker-Smith
We have no lack of suitable candidates for expenditure in the National Health Service. We are trying 26 to deploy such resources as are available to us, having regard to the needs in the general context of the public interest.

§ Mr. Blenkinsop
What changes have taken place since the last circular went out from the right hon. and learned Gentleman's Ministry? Has the right hon. and learned Gentleman a full record of developments in the hospitals?

§ Mr. Walker-Smith
The question I was asked relates not to hospitals as a whole but to out-patient departments. The trend there is that out-patients and casualty attendances have been virtually unchanged over the last three years, though the number of new out-patients is rising at about 2 per cent. per annum.

§ Mr. Blenkinsop
That was not the point I was trying to make. Is not the right hon. and learned Gentleman aware that his Department has sent out over the years certain circulars referring to waiting in out-patient departments? I was only asking him whether he had any information about the action that hospitals had taken in response to the most recent circular.

§ Mr. Walker-Smith
The most recent circular specifically directed to this subject was in June, 1954, in which hospital authorities were invited to review their arrangements for out-patient departments. The report on the results of this review was that hospital authorities generally had made a thorough investigation of their arrangements, had succeeded in making improvements and are continuing to do so.