HC Deb 07 February 1966 vol 724 cc19-20
38. Mr. Prior

asked the Minister of Health why the new maternity unit at Northgate, Yarmouth, has been delayed.

Mr. K. Robinson

This scheme has not been delayed and building work is expected, as planned, to begin later this year.

Mr. Prior

Does the right hon. Gentleman realise that that is contrary to local information, in that the regional hospital board was told to go ahead with a pre- fabricated building, which went out to tender, that it received tenders and was then told by the Ministry that it could not go ahead?

Mr. Robinson

There were possible delays and difficulties, we felt, which could have arisen if the building method originally proposed had been adopted, and it has now been decided to build conventionally. But I am very glad to have this opportunity of setting right the local misunderstanding of this matter.

39. Mr. Prior

asked the Minister of Health what action he proposes to take to provide more maternity beds at Lowestoft.

Mr. K. Robinson

I would refer the hon. Member to the answer my hon. Friend gave him on 19th July last.

Mr. Prior

Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that that answer gave no satisfaction at all in my constituency, that this is a very serious problem, and that the delay in the building of the new maternity ward at Great Yarmouth is giving rise to a great deal of concern in my constituency? The Prime Minister himself, when Leader of the Opposition, went on record as saying that he would do everything in his power to speed up maternity accommodation. Why has he not done so?

Mr. Robinson

I understood that the hon. Gentleman accepted that the right solution was to build at Great Yarmouth, and I assure him that the building of the new unit there is expected to start in August and to be finished in 1968.