§ 56. Sir T. Beamishasked the Minister of Health if he will reprint in the OFFICAL REPORT the instructions sent on 15th October by his Department to the Brighton and Lewes Hospital Management Committee, postponing for two years the urgently needed accident centre at the Royal Sussex County Hospital; and what representations he has received about this decision, in view of the present inadequacy of the casualty department.
§ The Minister of Health (Mr. Kenneth Robinson)No such instruction was issued by my Department. I have received representations from my hon. Friend the Member for Brighton, Kemptown (Mr. Hobden), the hon. Member for Brighton, Pavilion (Sir W. Teeling) and from Brighton County Borough.
§ Sir Tufton BeamishIs the Minister aware that his hon. Friend made a positive allegation that this postponement for two years resulted from a concrete directive issued on polling day by the previous Administration? Is it not quite clear from his reply that that is not the case, and will he please bear in mind that there is a great and growing need for an accident centre in Brighton and do his utmost to give it high priority?
§ Mr. RobinsonI know that there is the need for a modern casualty department, although I understand that the present one, admittedly inadequate, is doing well. I have already said that no circular was issued by my Department. This postponement was decided by the regional hospital board as a result of reviewing its own programme which it found would have been overloaded had this item remained in it.