§ 8. Mr. Boydenasked the Minister of Health why the proportion of hospital capital expenditure on out-patient and casualty departments decreased during 1960–61 compared with the average capital expenditure of the years 1958 to 1961.
§ Mr. PowellThere is no significance in minor fluctuations in this percentage, which excludes departments in new hospitals.
§ Mr. BoydenAll the same, would not the right hon. Gentleman agree that many out-patient departments and casualty departments are out of date and inconvenient, and ought there not to be faster growth and improvement of these departments and some others?
§ Mr. PowellYes, Sir; I agree that the growth in out-patient work has been greater than that in hospital work at large, and there has been a great volume 5 of expenditure on it since the appointed day, but it is in the new hospitals that some of the biggest expenditure on new out-patients departments is taking place.
§ Mr. BoydenIn that case, could not the right hon. Gentleman alter his statistics so that the figures are more clearly shown?
§ Mr. PowellI think the hon. Member is right, and I am looking at the question of the table in my Annual Report.