HC Deb 07 March 1978 vol 945 cc1209-10
10. Mr. Edwin Wainwright

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services what recent representations he has received from people in the Mexborough and surrounding districts requesting that the casualty department of the Mexborough Montagu Hospital be reopened to provide a 24-hour daily service.

Mr. Moyle

I have received a petition from people served by the hospital and a letter from Mr. O'Donaghue, Secretary of the Rotherham Hospital Branch of the National Union of Public Employees.

Mr. Wainwright

Does my hon. Friend realise that people in the Mexborough and surrounding districts do not object to his Department building hospitals in the town centre, but they object to their lives being placed in danger because they have to travel so far and also to the indifference of the authorities to this?

Will my hon. Friend bear in mind what I have said and put pressure on the Trent Regional Health Authority and the Rotherham Area Health Authority to make sure that the casualty department of the Mexborough Montagu Hospital is open on a 24-hour basis?

Mr. Moyle

The lives of my hon. Friend's constituents are not likely to be in danger, because there will be a modern accident and emergency department at the new Rotherham Hospital, fully equipped. Certainly no indifference is being expressed by the Trent Regional Health Authority, which has approved the establishment of a clinical assistant to work at the Montagu Hospital. As a result of interviews last Friday, the authority has now filled that post, so that the accident and emergency department will be opening. The aim is to give a service from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Mr. Wainwright

On a point of order, Mr. Speaker. In view of the unsatisfactory nature of the reply, I beg to give notice that I shall seek to raise the matter on the Adjournment at the earliest possible moment.