§ The Secretary of State for the Home Department (Mr. William Whitelaw)I have been asked to reply.
My right hon. Friend has no plans to visit Wisbech.
§ Mr. FreudIs the right hon. Gentleman aware that during the election campaign the Conservative candidate for Isle of Ely distributed tens of thousands of leaflets which stated that the right hon. Lady, now Prime Minister, had reaffirmed
her promise to Dr. Stuttaford that a Conservative Government will save the Bowthorpe hospital"?If the Prime Minister is unable to come to Wisbech, will she at least announce the date of the ministerial reprieve so that celebrations may begin and staff recruitment recommence?
§ Mr. WhitelawIn fact, my right hon. Friend said that she would like to see the hospital kept open if possible. My hon. Friend the Minister for Health has said 1493 that we would want to retain Bowthorpe hospital but only if it were practicable and if matters had not gone too far. He is now considering the case in detail. As for Dr. Stuttaford, whose failure to get back to the House I deeply regret, he can well speak for himself.
§ Mr. Brocklebank-FowlerWill my right hon. Friend take it that many of my constituents were pleased by the sympathy which the Prime Minister showed towards small hospitals and wish her to urge her right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Social Services to review this decision and to save Bowthorpe hospital, which is a valuable and much-liked local hospital?
§ Mr. WhitelawI can certainly confirm that my right hon. Friend wishes to keep small local hospitals open, and I assure my hon. Friend that I shall convey his remarks to her.
§ Mr. EnnalsI did visit Wisbech during the course of the election campaign as a result of this squalid Tory vote-catching effort. When the right hon. Lady has the opportunity to visit Wisbech, will she give some explanation to the people there why, after an assurance was given that the National Health Service would not suffer from public expenditure cuts, they now find that, as a result of the increase in VAT and the application of cash limits, their Health Service is being threatened with a 3 per cent. cut in revenue expenditure?
§ Mr. WhitelawI do not accept the right hon. Gentleman's ideas.
§ Mr. Eldon GriffithsWill my right hon. Friend convey to the Prime Minister that the time she gains by not visiting Wisbech or Bowthorpe hospital might be better devoted to dealing with the threat now being made to certain hospitals in East Anglia that the National Union of Public Employees will take industrial action against the policy of this Government, endorsed by the British electorate, that we shall not permit a vendetta to be pursued against pay beds? Will he make clear that it would be wholly wrong and against this country's constitutional proprieties that NUPE should do any such thing?
§ Mr. WhitelawI entirely agree that any such action, if it were taken, would be highly regrettable.