HC Deb 10 January 1978 vol 941 cc1426-7
9. Mr. Edwin Wainwright

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will list the number of letters he has received from organisations and individuals protesting about the closing down of the casualty department at the Montagu Hospital, Mexborough.

The Minister of State, Department of Health and Social Security (Mr. Roland Moyle)

My right hon. Friend has received no such letters, but the Rotherham Area Health Authority, which manages Montagu Hospital, has received letters from my hon. Friend the Member for Rother Valley (Mr. Hardy), Councillor E. Gardner, General and Municipal Workers Union—Mexborough Branch—and Mexborough and District Trades Council. Following my discussions with a deputation from the Yorkshire Area NUM, and my hon. Friends the Members for Dearne Valley (Mr. Wainwright) and Pontefract (Mr. Harper) and my visit to the Montagu Hospital last month, I am well aware of strong local feeling which the temporary closure of the casualty department has aroused.

Mr. Wainwright

May I remind my hon. Friend that it is not just a question of danger to life when serious accidents occur in the pits, in industry, on roads and in homes if people have to be taken to Rotherham, Barnsley and Doncaster hospitals? It is also a question of the inconvenience caused to parents and to others who have minor injuries in having to take their children or having to travel themselves to the three hospitals I have mentioned. Is he aware, further, that most of the people do not have cars and that, therefore, his Department, the Trent Regional Health Authority and the Rotherham Area Health Authority should do something to meet this basic need?

Mr. Moyle

The area health authorities are well aware of all the factors that my hon. Friend has mentioned. The trobule is that the breadth of experience of the casualty department is not sufficiently wide to attract doctors who wish to go there to train. At the moment, the Trent Regional Health Authority is considering appointing general practitioners to work there, and if a proposal is made for the appointment of a medical assistant at the hospital I shall certainly look at that with as much sympathy as I can. We are aiming to open the casualty department from 9 a.m. until 10 p.m.