HC Deb 31 May 1965 vol 713 cc1149-50
13. Mr. Peter Mills

asked the Minister of Health in what way provision of toilets, operating rooms and other accommodation at Barnstaple Hospital falls short of the standards laid down by his Department.

The Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Health (Mr. Charles Loughlin)

It is old fashioned and insufficient. The South Western Regional Hospital Board hopes to start work on a new operating theatre and out-patient clinics later this year.

Mr. Mills

Does not this show the very real need to do something more at once, and will the hon. Gentleman bear in mind that I am still receiving letters complaining about the delays in getting operations in the hospital? Will he also take account of the extraordinary fact that a crematorium is being built in North Devon before a new general hospital?

Mr. Loughlin

I do not think that that is by a regional hospital board. I answered the Question as it was tabled. We appreciate that it is a very old hospital. I believe that its date is 1825. The hospital board itself is responsible for planning to meet the needs in the area which it covers. It would be to some degree presumptuous if my right hon. Friend interfered with regional hospital boards in this way. We appreciate that this is an old-fashioned hospital. The board is getting on with the job of the new operating theatre and clinics this year, and we hope that this will bring about an improvement.

Mr. Thorpe

While I am in no way blaming the present Administration for the state which they have inherited, may I ask the hon. Gentleman whether he would not agree that when one has a hospital with nearly 1,000 people on the waiting list, with no day room, no utility rooms and no central sterilisation rooms, with wards already over-choked with beds, and with only 12 lavatories for all the patients and staff to share, to build one new operating theatre is merely a patch-up and a very bad patch-up at that? Does he not feel that the need for a new hospital is of the greatest urgency?

Mr. Loughlin

If I had wanted to go into the background of this I should have said very much what the hon. Member for Devon, North (Mr. Thorpe) has said. We appreciate that until we get a new hospital in the area the facilities will be inadequate. Improvements have been made. We hope that with the new hospital we can solve the problems. We are very mindful of the difficulties.