HC Deb 30 March 1983 vol 40 cc331-2
8. Mr. Lambie

asked the Secretary of State for Scotland when it is proposed to start the construction of a new laundry in north Ayrshire for the Ayrshire and Arran health board; and if he will make a statement.

Mr. John MacKay

The board is considering a number of alternative methods of providing laundry facilities in north Ayrshire. I hope to receive its proposals shortly.

Mr. Lambie

Why has the offer from Irvine development corporation to rent or sell one of its many empty factories to be completed as a laundry not been accepted by the Ayrshire and Arran health board? Is it because the Minister's right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Scotland, has an interest in Ayrshire and wishes one of his political industrial friends in north Ayrshire to provide laundry services to the hospitals of North Ayrshire as a first step in the privatisation of health services in the Ayrshire and Arran health board area?

Mr. MacKay

The last part of the hon. Gentleman's question was unworthy of him and was an unwarranted slur on my right hon. Friend. I deplore the time that the health board has taken over this matter. It has a number of options to look at and I hope—I have made my view clear to the board chairman—that its proposals will come to me soon.

Mr. Foulkes

Will the Minister come clean and admit that he and his right hon. Friend are pushing the Ayrshire and Arran health board into privatisation, not just of the laundry service, but of the meal and cleaning services? Are not these three services in hospitals far too important to leave to private enterprise when so many of the companies which might carry them out are going bust because of the Government's economic policy?

Mr. MacKay

The health board is considering various options, including the building of a special laundry and the option mentioned by the hon. Member for Central Ayrshire (Mr. Lambie), and contracting out laundry work. It must be obvious to any sensible person that if contracting out is the most economic way to carry out the services it is for the benefit of the patients and the taxpayers that that is done so that as much of Health Service resources as possible are directed to patient care, or, in the words of the hon. Member for Central Ayrshire to my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister, to help with much needed facilities for psychogeriatric and geriatric care in south Ayrshire. I should have thought that that was the sensible way, unlike the dogmatic approach of the Labour party.

Mr. Corrie

If a private company offers a laundry service, will my hon. Friend support that company in doing the work for the health board?

Mr. Mackay

I assure my hon. Friend, and I have made it clear, that sound common sense is needed in the use of public money. I should expect the health board to look at all the options available, and if contracting out is the most economic way to deliver the service, common sense would tell us all that that is how it should be done.