HC Deb 09 December 1963 vol 686 cc20-1
13. Dr. Dickson Mabon

asked the Minister of Health how many new hospitals were completed in 1960 and in 1961 in England and Wales.

Mr. Barber

In 1960, phases of three new and two substantially remodelled hospitals, and in 1961, phases of three new and one substantially remodelled hospital, were completed and brought into use.

Dr. Mabon

Does the Minister realise that that Answer, together with the Answer he gave me last week on a comparable matter, in fact show a shortfall in spending of £140 million in a period of four years? Does he realise that his predecessor promised us a rate of spending of £70 million a year and to that end imposed health taxes amounting to £70 million a year upon the chronic sick? Would he like to justify this?

Mr. Barber

With respect to the hon. Gentleman, he is wrong on both counts. I will give him the figures. The Hospital Plan assumed expenditure in the first five years of £200 million—that is to say, an average of £40 million a year. At current prices, this is the equivalent of £45 million a year. The amount we expect to spend in this financial year is £46 million. Next year we plan to spend £52 million. With regard to the second part of the hon. Gentleman's supplementary question, I think that the progress of the building programme in the Hospital Plan can be better gauged by comparing the volume of work in progress when the Plan was published, which was £70 million, with that at the present time which is, not the figure the hon. Gentleman mentioned, but £120 million.

Dr. Mabon

May I draw the Minister's attention to his predecessor's speech in February 1960 in which his predecessor said that these taxes would be spent entirely on hospital building programmes? May I remind the Minister that these taxes were raised in 1960 by £68 million and in 1961 and thereafter by a sum in excess of that? Is not this a gross deception of Parliament and the people?

Mr. Barber

If the hon. Gentleman is contemplating removing National Health Service contributions and charges to patients, the cost would be something in the region of £190 million. One could recoup that by increasing the standard rate of Income Tax by 6d. in the £.