§ Mr. Nicholas Brown (Newcastle upon Tyne, East)I beg to ask leave to move the Adjournment of the House under Standing Order No. 10, for the purpose of discussing a specific and important matter that should have urgent consideration, namely,
The proposed closure of Health Service facilities in Newcastle hospitals".The matter is important because the latest proposals for cuts follow the recent most severe assaults on Health Service provision in the northern region. The matter is urgent because the proposals became public knowledge today, and today this devastation of Health Service provision in the north should be stopped in its tracks. Our community is not prepared to tolerate the wicked, unfair and unequal closures imposed on our region.I am grateful to Newcastle's local newspaper, The Journal, for making public the latest outrages. A further 166 hospital beds are to go in Newcastle. This time the excuse is forecasts of population nine years hence. Yet the cuts are to be made now, lengthening waiting lists across the northern region.
Already under the existing provision, 77 per cent. of cases which were urgent last September waited more than a month for treatment. The treatment of urgent cases in the northern region is far worse than the national average.
The position has been exacerbated yet further by the Government's consistent failure to bring funding into line even with national average provision under the resource allocation working party revenue targets. In a recently published letter, Professor Sam Shuster said:
In Newcastle last year, money was available for replacement of less than 10 per cent. of required medical equipment in the teaching hospital. In December we had to reduce spending by 10 per cent. and in January our district health authority found itself short of £3 million, not from overspending but from Government's failure to honour its responsibility for inflationary increases in rates and salaries. The deficit will be met by closing a children's hospital and orthopaedic and dermatology wards although this will seriously affect the work of several departments.The steady and consistent closure of Health Service provision in the northern region is strongly opposed by the overwhelming majority both of our community and of the region's publicly elected representatives. This outrage should be stopped now, and if this Government will not stop it, the next Government most certainly will.
§ Mr. SpeakerThe hon. Member for Newcastle upon Tyne, East (Mr. Brown) asks leave to move the Adjournment of the House under Standing Order No. 10 for the purpose of discussing a specific and important matter that he thinks should have urgent consideration, namely,
The proposed closure of Health Service facilities in Newcastle hospitals.I have listened carefully to what the hon. Gentleman has said, but I regret that I do not consider the matter that he has raised is appropriate for discussion under Standing Order No. 10 and, therefore, I cannot submit his application to the House. I hope that he will find other methods of bringing it before us.