§ 21. Miss Herbisonasked the Secretary of State for Scotland what percentage of babies are born in hospital in Aberdeen, Glasgow, and Lanarkshire, respectively.
§ Mr. MaclayThe provisional figures for 1958 show that 91.4 per cent. of confinements in Aberdeen took place in hospital, 63.8 per cent. in Glasgow and 5.5 per cent. in Lanarkshire.
§ Miss HerbisonDoes the Minister not realise from those figures that there is a very grave shortage of hospitals for this work, certainly in Lanarkshire, and that also in Glasgow there ought to be a rapid increase of maternity beds? If the Minister examines those figures and the maternal mortality rate, he will be aware that there is some connection between the lack of beds and the maternal mortality rate.
§ Mr. MaclayI think the hon. Lady knows that we are getting on as fast as we can with the provision of new maternity beds in Lanarkshire and Glasgow. I could send her full details, as these would be too complicated to give in a supplementary answer.