HC Deb 10 June 1975 vol 893 cc231-3
13. Mr. Grylls

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if she has any plans for obtaining additional finance for the NHS.

Mrs. Castle

Plans for the NHS will be carefully reassessed in the 1975 public expenditure review, in which our aim will be to ensure in the light of the latest assessment of economic prospects that the most essential needs are met as far as possible. As I told the House on 2nd December last, additional sums have been provided in 1975–76 in order to restore some of the cuts made by the previous Government. Planned expenditure will be about 4 per cent. higher in real terms than in 1974–75.

Mr. Grylls

Is the right hon. Lady aware that she is cutting the income of the National Health Service at a stroke by £50 million by banning pay beds? Does she not realise that there is a need for extra finance for the health service and that it is not likely to come from the Exchequer? Will she investigate a scheme for making a modest charge for all hospital beds for those who can afford it or for those who have insurance? Does she agree that this would bring in the extra money which is so desperately needed for the service?

Mrs. Castle

The hon. Gentleman is quite wrong in what he has said about pay beds. We are making up to 4,000 additional hospital beds available for National Health Service patients. That is a very good return for the loss of the pay bed revenue, which has never completely economically covered the cost.

Mr. Alexander Wilson

Will my right hon. Friend accept my advice that if she is looking for extra finance for the National Health Service, as we all are, she can start by selling the monstrosities that we have in Scotland at Holy Loch—namely, the Polaris submarines—so that she will have enough money for National Health Service centres?

Mrs. Castle

I am well aware of my hon. Friend's views on that matter. Of course, the Government have reviewed defence expenditure and have included it in the public expenditure reductions and restraints that we have had to make. It is a question of balancing all the different demands in our society for all the forms of expenditure that we could all press to see increased. I have noticed how very often Conservative Members are in favour of public expenditure cuts in general but are in favour of public expenditure increases on every political item.

Mr. Norman Fowler

Is not my hon. Friend the Member for Surrey, North-West (Mr. Grylls) correct? Given a situation in which the National Health Service is desperately short of resources, how can the right hon. Lady justify throwing away millions of pounds by abolishing pay beds? How does she reconcile her policy with the calls from her Cabinet colleagues for cuts in public expenditure?

Mrs. Castle

And how can the hon. Gentleman possibly describe a policy which makes available up to 4,000 more beds for National Health Service patients as the throwing away of millions of pounds? Indeed, in the letter which has gone out from my Department to the regional health authorities about the reduction of pay bed authorisations through the under-utilisation exercise, we are asking the authorities to bear in mind in their future spending plans that these additional beds will be available. We are asking them to let us know how they intend to use them in the interests of the National Health Service.

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