§ 26. Mr. Frank Allaunasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will take fresh steps to deal with the difficulty of finding hospital beds for patients urgently needing them, as evidenced in the letter sent to him by the hon. Member for Salford, East.
§ Dr. John DunwoodyI have no evidence of any general difficulty in getting urgent cases admitted to hospital but if my hon. Friend will provide further details of any individual cases I will gladly look into them.
§ Mr. AllaunYes, I will. Will my hon. Friend consider improving central emergency bed services where they exist 1012 and setting them up where they do not exist? Secondly, is he aware that many G.P.s are finding difficulty in even getting emergency cases into emergency central bureaux?
§ Dr. DunwoodyThe emergency bed services provide a very useful function, particularly in the densely-populated areas. I understand that there is one working in the Manchester and Salford area. My hon. Friend speaks of the difficulties which doctors have in getting urgent cases admitted. As I have said, if my hon. Friend has any instances in mind I shall be glad to hear of them. My information is that, generally speaking, the urgent cases are admitted into hospital fairly quickly. It is interesting to note that over the last ten years, when our population has increased by 7 per cent., the number of in-patients we have been able to treat in the hospitals has increased by 30 per cent.