HC Deb 09 December 1963 vol 686 cc26-7
31. Mr. Swingler

asked the Minister of Health if he will make a further statement on hospital plans for North Staffordshire, with particular reference to the priority to be given to the proposed new pathological department.

Mr. Braine

Three main schemes, costing well over £1 million, to improve the hospitals at Stoke are now under construction; the next main scheme, a new maternity unit, is expected to start next summer; the pathological department is to be extended next year pending the building of a new department.

Mr. Swingler

I am grateful for small mercies, but is not the Minister aware—I think that he must be from the evidence which I sent him some time ago—that the urgent need is for an entirely new pathological department in North Staffordshire to replace the early Victorian slum in which our pathologists and their staff at present have to work? They will be grateful for some alleviation next year, but when will it be possible to include in the programme, for it is really very urgent, an entirely new pathological department for this area of more than 500,000 people?

Mr. Braine

Discussion on the scope and timing of the new department is under way locally. I cannot possibly accept the stricture implied in the hon. Gentleman's first comment. The three main schemes under construction and building now are: an accident unit, with operating theatre suites, costing £400,000, to be completed in the spring of next year; a central out-patient department to serve the hospitals of Stoke costing £750,000, to be completed at the end of 1965; and neurosurgical and neurological wards at North Staffs Royal Infirmary costing £150,000, to be completed at the end of 1965. The other main scheme is a new maternity unit which will cost over £2 million. I should not describe these as small mercies.

Mr. Swingler

Does not the Minister realise that I am speaking with regard to the relative need? I should be prepared to receive him on the ground in order to look at the actual situation in North Staffordshire, with its legacy of thirty years of negligence, and to examine the needs of this enormous area. Perhaps he would then consider whether this really is a programme adequate to the need.

Mr. Braine

I am always ready to meet any hon. Member. I should be delighted to meet the hon. Gentleman to discuss the particular point which is worrying him about the pathological department.