HC Deb 27 July 1976 vol 916 cc242-4
14. Mr. Mudd

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he is considering any reorganisation plans for area health authorities.

Mr. Ennals

No, Sir, but I have asked the area health authorities and the regional health authorities to consider ways of securing economies in their management costs. I await their proposals.

Mr. Mudd

I thank the right hon. Gentleman for his reply, but does he not agree that the BMA is seeking to refer the junior hospital doctors' dispute to the Prime Minister? Does that not indicate the degree of malaise that exists and the profession's loss of faith in his Department, from his own level down to area health authorities?

Mr. Ennals

I believe that it was a useful discussion that my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister, my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Employment and I had with the medical profession. It is true that it has a number of worries. Some of them are linked with the reorganisation of the Health Service, while some are linked with the inevitable difficulties of pay policy. There are other problems as well. These matters were raised with my right hon. Friend. It was an extremely productive and frank meeting. The mood of the meeting was helpful. I believe that it augurs well for the operation of bridge-building and for creating a better atmosphere between the Government and the profession, which is of vital importance.

Mr. Christopher Price

Will my right hon. Friend take into account the special problems of area health authorities? The Lambeth, Lewisham and Southwark area, for example, has three teaching hospitals and the authority is now being called upon to take a balancing decision between teaching hospital costs and community hospitals, such as the Sydenham Children's Hospital, in my constituency.

Mr. Ennals

There are such problems, and there are problems that arise from the redistribution of resources between regions to ensure that the deprived regions get a more adequate share of revenue funds than the better endowed ones. That produces some problems, but it means that we are easing the problems in the boroughs that have been under-provided.

Mr. Patrick Jenkin

Reverting to the question of junior doctors, does the right hon. Gentleman accept outside any question of pay policy, that some junior doctors will be worse off under the new contract? Will he now say publicly that there will be a no-detriment clause, so as to avoid that difficulty, which has given rise to much of the bitterness?

Mr. Ennals

I do not think that it has given rise to much of the bitterness. I think that only a small number of doctors will be getting less than before under the new contract. My right hon. Friend the Prime Minister said that he would look into this question. We have to recognise that, on average, junior hospital doctors have received an increase of slightly under £800 from the new contract, compared with the previous one. That is a satisfactory settlement.