HC Deb 11 July 1960 vol 626 cc964-5
21. Mr. W. Hamilton

asked the Minister of Health what steps he is taking to encourage the building of more health centres as envisaged in Section 21 of the National Health Service Act, 1946.

Mr. Walker-Smith

I welcome local initiative in setting up health centres, especially in re-development areas and areas of large-scale new housing development, as I do the many other methods of bringing the different parts of the Health Service together.

Mr. Hamilton

That does not get us very far. Will the right hon. and learned Gentleman recall the remarks he made in Birmingham, on 17th May, when he welcomed the extension of the provision under the terms of Section 21 of the 1946 Act? In view of the right hon. and learned Gentleman's apparent conversion to the benefits of that Section, will he not take the opportunity of deploring any restrictive tendencies which there might be in recently announced economic measures? Will he give an assurance that local authorities will not be hindered by those restrictive measures in their provision of such centres?

Mr. Walker-Smith

A number of health centres have been provided under Section 21, of which that at Birmingham to which the hon. Gentleman referred is one. In recent years loan sanction has been given in all cases where there has been local agreement to a health centre project, but the initiative in these matters must come from the locality concerned, and that involves a measure of agreement among the general practitioners and otherwise before such a proposal is put forward.

Mrs. Slater

Will the Minister try to do a little more to convince practitioners that there is a useful service to be carried out and that they themselves would benefit from such a service which a local authority is able to give them in an efficient health centre?

Mr. Walker-Smith

I think that general practitioners are well aware of the desirablility of grouped activities in one form or another, but, as the hon. Lady will know, they also proceed by way of group practice premises and by other methods. We were advised by the Guillebaud Committee to approach this mater on an experimental basis.

Mr. Baxter

Is the right hon. and learned Genetleman aware that the provision of health centres in Scotland is the responsibility of the Government through the Secretary of State for Scotland? Is he further aware that the Government have provided only two health centres in Scotland since the National Health Service was put into operation—one in Edinburgh and the other in Stranraer? The borough of Kilsyth, under the auspices of the Stirling County Council, has made numerous applications to the Secretary of State to provide a health centre in Kilsyth.

Mr. Walker-Smith

I am aware that that is a matter for my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Scotland, and that seems a very good reason why I should make no comment on the rest of the hon. Gentleman's supplementary question.