HC Deb 28 April 1969 vol 782 cc948-51

The following Written Question stood upon the Order Paper:

Mrs. RENÉE SHORT

To ask the Secretary of State for Social Services what is the total number of private nursing homes and clinics now licensed as being suitable for carrying out terminations of pregnancy; how many of these licences were issued after the Abortion Act became law in April, 1968, and have been renewed in April, 1969; and how many licences were not renewed and for what reasons.

The Secretary of State for Social Services (Mr. Richard Crossman)

With permission, Mr. Speaker, I will now answer Written Question No. 14.

Fifty-five out of the fifty-nine homes approved for the termination of pregnancy up to 26th April sought reapproval. Forty-seven have been given reapproval for a further year. I have given reapproval for a period of two months only to seven homes, and have drawn their attention to apparent deficiencies in their facilities.

The common feature of these homes—all in the North West Metropolitan area—is the high number of terminations performed there. These homes will be re-inspected by professional officers of my Department before any further approval is given. In addition, reapproval has been withheld in one case and a final decision will be reached in the light of further inquiries. Applications for approval from five homes not previously approved are under consideration.

Mrs. Short

I thank my right hon. Friend for giving this Question an oral answer. What deficiencies did his officers discover in the seven homes which have been given reapproval only for a further two months? Can these deficiencies easily be put right? His Answer is a matter of anxiety to both doctors and patients. In the case of the home for which reapproval has not been granted, how many terminations of pregnancy were carried out there during the past year? Why was the home not reapproved?

Mr. Speaker

Order. The oral Answer of a Written Question does not mean that an hon. Member can ask too long a supplementary.

Mrs. Short

Finally, can my right hon. Friend tell us how long it will take to examine and possibly approve the five homes for which applications for approval are under consideration?

Mr. Crossman

The deficiencies in the homes for which reapproval has been given for a period of two months relate particularly to the operating facilities, which may give rise to the risk of cross-infection, facilities for safe post-operative movement of patients and also arrangements for the provision of blood in emergencies. These relate to the fact that a very large number of abortions take place in these homes.

Sir J. Vaughan-Morgan

Does the right hon. Gentleman think that his powers under the present legislation are adequate to deal with these matters?

Mr. Crossman

My powers are adequate to deal with the matters which the Minister was instructed to deal with. These, of course, are the physical conditions in the home. The Minister's job is not to tell the doctor how to do his job, but to see that the job is done in adequate physical conditions. That is as far as I can go in answer now.

Dr. John Dunwoody

I welcome what my right hon. Friend has said about the inspection of the nursing homes. Does not he agree that much of the pressure on private nursing homes is because some consultants at least are failing to make available to patients treatment which was intended to be made available to them by the Act?

Mr. Crossman

That is my view and it has been demonstrated by the statistics, which show that there is now two and a half times the number of therapeutic abortions compared with any previous 12 months before the Act. In the South-West Metropolitan Region 22 per cent. of the women resident in the region were operated on in National Health Service hospitals, while in the Newcastle Region the figure was 96 per cent. The difference is very great. I meant, of course, per thousand.

Mr. Maurice Macmillan

To what extent do the figures quoted by the right hon. Gentleman about approvals and the withholding of approval apply to the London area? To what extent does he estimate that the very high demand in the London area is due to residents coming to London from other areas of this country and also to people coming from abroad?

Mr. Crossman

The patients from abroad are a very small proportion. Evidence seems to show that patients are going to these seven homes from other parts of the country, and no doubt one of the factors is the difficulty in those regions of obtaining abortions.

Mr. Pavitt

Can my right hon. Friend look at whether, in the private nursing sector, it would be possible to allow the patient to have a longer period of rest after termination of pregnancy and thus avoid what is at present a rather factory-like production line?

Mr. Crossman

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for calling attention to this very undesirable factor. In the case of abortions taking place under the National Health Service, the number of women who do not stay in hospital for a single night is virtually insignificant whereas the number of women who leave private nursing homes without spending a single night there is very high.

I am thinking of making it a condition that a private home should have sufficient beds to be able to give to any woman who desires or needs to stay accommodation for the night after the operation.

Several Hon. Members

rose—

Mr. Speaker

Order. We must get on.