§ 6. Mr. Tim Rentonasked the Secretary of State for Social Services whether he is satisfied with the provision of accident and emergency services in Mid-Sussex; and whether the new nucleus hospital in Haywards Heath will include such services.
§ The Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Security (Mr. Eric Deakins)The South-West Thames regional health authority considers that the accident and emergency unit at Crawley hospital should provide adequate service for the Cuckfield and Crawley health district, and the authority does not, therefore, propose to include an accident and emergency department in the first phase of the nucleus hospital planned for Haywards Heath.
§ Mr. RentonIs the Minister aware that both the local community health council and the medical executive committee are unanimously opposed to the phasing out of accident and emergency services at Cuckfield hospital? Does he think that only one accident and emergency unit will be sufficient in a health district which will have a population of 400,000 by the mid-1980s and which will be growing rapidly due to the expansion of Gatwick airport? Will the Minister therefore seriously reconsider this decision?
§ Mr. DeakinsThe health authorities concerned in the region are planning on the basis that Cuckfield hospital will cease to provide a full accident emergency department, but this will be subject to normal consultative procedures, so that the organisation to which the hon. Gentleman has referred will have an opportunity to make its point then. For the longer-term future, the regional health authority will be considering whether to include an accident and emergency department in later phases at Haywards Heath when it comes to decide on the functional content of further development in the light of population predictions at that time.