HC Deb 21 October 1986 vol 102 cc933-5
6. Mr. Thurnham

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he has had further discussions with the chairman of the North Western regional health authority about the authority's capital expenditure programme; and if he will make a statement.

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Security (Mrs. Edwina Currie)

My hon. Friend the Member for Wycombe (Mr. Whitney) wrote to my hon. Friend on 12 August setting out the state of play at that date. Since then we have had no particular meetings with Sir John Page, the chairman of the North Western regional health authority, on this subject, although I have met him several times, and I shall be in North-Western region tomorrow.

Mr. Thurnham

I welcome my hon. Friend to the Dispatch Box. Is she aware of the great concern in Bolton that there should be no delay in starting the new hospital building programme? Will she give a commitment that there will be adequate funds to ensure an early start to the building and operation of this much needed development?

Mrs. Currie

Yes, indeed. Despite the article in this morning's Daily Mirror, I am able to confirm that the programme of rebuilding the Bolton general hospital, to which I think my hon. Friend is referring, is due to start, as agreed, in September 1989. Some work is under way already. The region's plan to upgrade the X-ray department and to extend the pathology department at a cost of over £1 million is already out to tender, and work will start on site in April next year.

Mr. Campbell-Savours

Is the hon. Lady aware that the United Kingdom regional development programme 1986, which has been published today in national newspapers, in commenting on health care in the regions of the north, said that the inadequate resources available to cater for people's health problems meant that the problems were not being resolved?

As the document is a Government publication and an admission that insufficient resources are made available, why do the Government not do what Conservative and Labour supporters up and down the country are demanding and spend more money on the National Health Service? Why does the Minister resist that and favour making stupid, pathetic statements in the north of England, which only serve to upset people, as part of her public relations self-promotion campaign?

Mrs. Currie

When the Conservative party came into office in 1979 the National Health Service in many parts of the country, including the north of England, was in a pathetic state. We therefore took on board the point that the hon. Gentleman failed to make at that time—that not enough money was being spent. I am glad to report that, in the north-west alone, we have spent £27 million on the Royal Preston hospital, and £17–9 million on phase 1 of Hope hospital, Salford. We are in the process of spending £12 million on phase 2 of Tameside general hospital and £19 million on phase 2 of Manchester royal infirmary. I have a long list of hospitals. If the hon. Gentleman wishes me to read out all of them, I shall do so.

As for the problems of health care in the north, it is a fact that there are many thousands of people in hospitals suffering from coronary heart disease, lung cancer and other illnesses which are preventable. I invite the hon. Gentleman to join us in our campaign to reduce that toll.

Mr. Sackville

Will my hon. Friend confirm that the north-west 10-year hospital building programme will cost in excess of £400 million? Will she ensure that all efforts are made to avoid any delays in start dates and that resources are made available to ensure that the revenue consequences of this huge programme are met?

Mrs. Currie

The north-west region has the second highest capital allocation in England. This year it is about £71–5 million. As my hon. Friend knows, that compares with the 1978 figure of only £36 million. In other words, under this Government, in cash terms, the figure has doubled. I take the point that my hon. Friend made about cash being made available to open schemes. That is the basis on which schemes are agreed. The problems to which he referred should have been eradicated.

Mr. James Lamond

Is the hon. Lady aware that my constituents in the North West regional health authority area are fed up with the boasting and complacency of the Secretary of State, now echoed by herself? My constituents measure value for money in a simple way: they have paid their national insurance contributions all their working lives, and when they need a cataract operation they are told that they will be placed on a waiting list of two to three years, unless they go private, when they can have the operation the following week.

Mrs. Currie

The hon. Gentleman would not seek to deny that we are now looking after far more patients in the North West region, as we are throughout the country. Some of the waiting lists reflect the fact that services have been created where there were none before and that the operations are successful where they were less successful before. In other words, success is breeding its own demand. We are glad to recognise that and to provide the resources to meet it.

Mr. Robert Atkins

I add my good wishes to my hon. Friend in her onerous task. When she meets the chairman of the North West regional health authority tomorrow, will she express to him the concern expressed to me by my constituents and by many constituents of hon. Members on both sides of the House about the potential closure of the children's arthritic ward at Wrightington hospital, which is a regional specialty and could well be a national specialty? Will she express her concern, as expressed to her predecessor by a wide-ranging delegation, and assure me categorically that she will not take a decision to close that ward until she has had a chance to hear the views of those who care enough about the future of the hospital?

Mrs. Currie

I should be delighted to take the opportunity to meet and discuss this question with my hon. Friend and take into account the points that he has made. I am quite certain that whatever plans are arranged and carried through will be for the benefit of the children concerned.

Mr. Cyril Smith

Tomorrow, when the Minister enjoys her fish and chips in the north-west, will she take the opportunity to ask Sir John Page how the region finances its capital building programme, which was the point to which the original question referred? Will she ask him, for example, whether it is a fact that much of that capital programme is financed from existing services, with those services consequently having to close down to finance new capital expenditure? Will the hon. Lady ask the chairman of the region whether it is a fact that, if a district health authority in the north-west sells assets, only a proportion of those assets return to the district, the rest being taken to finance capital projects in other parts of the region?

Mrs. Currie

The hon. Gentleman has asked a number of questions. May I first remind him that I learnt to make fish and chips in the north-west, where I was born and brought up. A substantial part of the capital programme is intended, as the hon. Gentleman knows—indeed, he has called for this — to replace old and outdated facilities. It does not make sense for us to spend money keeping Victorian hospitals going when we could spend perhaps the same or only slightly more to create brand new facilities which will last well into the next century. That is the the view that we take. As far as I am aware, it has always been the case that capital is taken by the region and redistributed and that the districts have a substantial claim to that money. But if another district, which may well serve the hon. Gentleman's constituents, has a need also, it is right that the money should go there.