HC Deb 15 November 1983 vol 48 cc714-5
11. Mr. Fatchett

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services what is the number of private hospital beds in 1979, in comparison with the last available figures for 1983.

Mr. John Patten

I regret that no information is available for 1979. There are approximately 34,500 beds in the independent sector now, more than three quarters of which are in nursing homes.

Mr. Fatchett

To what extent are those private beds subsidised by the taxpayer? Is it not a moral outrage that, at a time when Leeds eastern and Leeds western health districts are being forced to cut jobs and services, the proposed private hospital at Methley near Leeds should be subsidised by the Government's business expansion scheme?

Mr. Patten

No subsidy is paid by the taxpayer to support private medicine. The funding of one of the two new hospitals in Leeds to which the hon. Gentleman referred is a matter for my right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer, not for me.

Mr. Chapman

Does my hon. Friend agree that the increase in private beds reflect the fact that many more people are joining health insurance schemes and that a further contributory factor is the fact that many trade unionists are joining private health schemes?

Mr. Patten

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. I am sure he will agree that we wish to see throughout the country more examples of co-operation between health authorities in the private sector in providing joint developments for the benefit of patients in both schemes.

Mr. Barron

Bearing in mind the answer that he gave to my hon. Friend the Member for Leeds, Central (Mr. Fatchett), is the Minister aware that private hospitals are used to carry out operations and patients are then transferred to NHS hospitals for post-operative care? Is not that an area in which the NHS is subsidising private medicine?

Mr. Patten

No—far from it. More than £50 million comes to the NHS through that system.

Mr. Dobson

Now that private hospitals and private health insurance companies are finding it difficult to make profits, will the Minister and his right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer resist the importuning and bleating of the private sector for more subsidies from the taxpayer, in addition to the tax concessions that it has already received, the business start-up scheme that it has exploited, the changes in consultants' contracts, the way in which private hospitals are parasites on neighbouring NHS hospitals and the scandalous changes introduced by the Government in the disposal of surplus NHS land to private hospitals?

Mr. Patten

There seem to be about seven separate questions there. In the past four years there has been an increase of some 3,000 beds in the private sector and a further 800 are being built. Those beds increase the availability of health care in this country. They do not decrease it. We welcome the co-operation between the public and private sectors in this context.