HC Deb 31 January 1972 vol 830 cc4-5
4. Mr. Nicholas Edwards

asked the Secretary of State for Wales whether the recommendations contained in the Interim Report of the Working Party on Children in Hospital in Wales are being acted upon in planning the future of paediatric services in West Wales.

The Minister of State, Welsh Office (Mr. David Gibson-Watt)

Developments in the paediatric services planned for West Wales by the Welsh Hospital Board are consistent with the Interim Report. This report was given wide circulation and comments have been invited for consideration by the Board's Working Party

Mr. Edwards

But is my hon. Friend aware that the Working Party urged that a simple population-based norm was inappropriate as a guide to the appointment of paediatricians in Wales, that centralisation makes it difficult to maintain home contact and that travelling time and distance should be taken into account in planning services? Is this being done at Withybush? Will my hon. Friend ensure that the report is published?

Mr. Gibson-Watt

First, the final report of the Working Party will not be presented to the Welsh Hospital Board before May. Secondly, as I think my hon. Friend is aware, an application by the Board for permission to appoint an additional consultant in paediatrics in West Wales to be based at Carmarthen has been submitted to the Advisory Committee on Consultant Establishments and a decision is awaited.

Mr. Elystan Morgan

Will the hon. Gentleman resist any temptation to cling to a rigid policy of localising specialist services at the base hospitals only, or mainly at the base hospitals? Does he accept that there are areas in Mid-Wales where patients, their friends and families have to travel between 70 and 80 miles to get to the hospital which, with public transport services as they are, sometimes involves more than a day's travelling? This is a real problem of deprivation.

Mr. Gibson-Watt

I appreciate that this is a very great problem in the hon. Gentleman's constituency, but, as I have said, professional opinion opposes single-handed appointments in the paediatric specialty, and it is thought that by basing the second consultant at Carmarthen the best use can be made of available resources while at the same time providing the most satisfactory service for the area as a whole.