Health Boards

HC Deb 16 May 1984 vol 60 cc343-4

1. Mr. O'Neill

asked the Secretary of State for Scotland when he will next be meeting the chairmen of Scottish health boards to discuss the funding of their activities

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Scotland (Mr. John MacKay)

I shall next be meeting health board chairmen on 12 June, when a number of major issues affecting the provision of health services will be discussed. I have no specific plans to discuss the financial allocations to health boards for 1984–85, which were discussed at my last meeting with chairmen on 13 March.

Mr. O'Neill

Before 12 June, will the Minister reflect on the possibility that one reason for the decline in Tory support in Lothian, and the crushing Labour victory in the Edinburgh district council elections, has been the Government's display of the shallowness of the Prime Minister's promise that the NHS was safe in her hands when, in fact, Lothian health board has been subjected to such drastic cuts that 250 employees are likely to lose their jobs?

Mr. MacKay

The 200 jobs mentioned in the newspapers recently are not 200 real jobs—200 people will not lose their jobs. It is simply that Lothian will not take into post the 200 additional jobs that it had planned to make available. I remind the House that since 1979 we have spent more money on the NHS than ever before. There are more doctors and more nurses treating more patients.

Mrs. McCurley

Will my hon. Friend advise the chairmen of the health boards that, wherever possible, they should privatise services so that they become more efficient?

Mr. MacKay

Yes, indeed. The health board chairmen are well aware of the need to run the health boards as efficiently as possible. That may mean putting certain tasks out to private contractors, which may be the best way of obtaining value for money in the NHS.

Mr. Donald Stewart

I know that the Minister has taken the trouble to consider the matter that I wish to raise. Will he keep in mind the great difficulties under which the Western Isles health board is working because of the high incidence of geriatrics in the area and the conditions under which local hospitals are operating?

Mr. MacKay

All the health board chairmen are well aware of the priority given by both this and the previous Government to the needs of the increasing number of elderly people. I am equally well aware of the proposal now before my Department from the Western Isles health board for hospital provision in Stornoway, which we are now considering.

Sir Hector Monro

Does my hon. Friend agree that the attitude of the Opposition arid the health service unions is wholly irresponsible in regard to what they are saying about the running down of the Health Service? Does he further agree that compared with 1979 more than 6,000 additional nurses and 400 additional doctors are working in the NHS, and that the Government have spent an additional £120 million this year on the NHS? I do not understand how on earth the Opposition can take such an attitude.

Mr. MacKay

My hon.. Friend is absolutely right. There have been many new developments, such as the increase in cardiac surgery, heart bypass and hip replacement operations. The additional work being done in the NHS shows the priority that the Government give to it in real terms.

Mr. Eadie

When the Minister gets around to meeting the chairmen of the health boards, will he make a special point of talking to the chairman of Lothian and ensure that he briefs himself on what is happening in the Lothian area? Are there to be cuts in the Health Service in Lothian? The general practitioners in the area are warning Members of Parliament about what may happen.

Mr. MacKay

As I have already said, I shall meet all the health board chairmen in June, and that includes the chairman of the Lothian health board, whom I met in March when I met the other chairmen. Of course, the hon. Gentleman and other hon. Members can point to a certain hospital whose services are being cut because they are obsolete or out of date, but, as my hon. Friend the Member for Dumfries (Sir H. Monro) said, throughout the whole of Scotland there are now more doctors and more nurses treating more patients and we have a better Health Service than the one that we inherited from the Labour party.