§ Q3. Ms. RuddockTo ask the Prime Minister if she will list her official engagements for Thursday 26 November.
§ The Prime MinisterI refer the hon. Lady to the reply that I gave some moments ago.
§ Ms. RuddockIs the Prime Minister aware that, following the Barber baby controversy, it has now been revealed that the lives of 34 children are similarly at risk, and that one has died while waiting for a bed?
Does she agree that the catastrophic nursing shortage arises because of the miserable pay and conditions in the Health Service? Did agency nurses have to be brought into that hospital for the operation to take place?
§ The Prime MinisterThere are 64,000 more nurses and midwives now than there were during the lifetime of the Labour Government. There are 20 per cent, more paediatric nurses now than during the lifetime of the Labour Government. The number of paediatric nurses working on intensive care cots went up by 127 per cent, between 1981 and 1986. That shows an enourmous improvement in the services that are available.
I am not sure whether the hon. Lady is aware that the number of children who are surviving at birth and within the first seven days—usually quite a number of them die in that period — has increased, because the number of deaths during that period is down by a third. That is a good record.
§ Mr. DevlinWill my right hon. Friend take time during her busy day to receive a report from the chairmen of the urban development corporations; and, in particular, from the chairman of the Teesside development corporation, who has some extremely good news for her since her visit there in September?
§ The Prime MinisterI cannot promise that I will do so today, but we shall certainly look at it. That urban development corporation was set up quickly and set about getting contracts of great benefit to the area. I am sure that its early success will be continued.
§ Q4. Mr. WareingTo ask the Prime Minister if she will list her official engagements for Thursday 26 November.
§ The Prime MinisterI refer the hon. Gentleman to the reply that I gave some moments ago.
§ Mr. WareingAs 34 cases are still awaiting operations at the one hospital in which the David Barber case caused such problems, what advice would the Prime Minister give in the light of the fact that David Barber received his operation only as a result of a tremendous amount of publicity being raised by his parents? What advice would she give to the parents of the 34 other cases in that hospital alone? Is it not time that she shook herself out of her arrogance and complacency in dealing with the matter?
§ The Prime MinisterI believe that David Barber has received his operation, that it has gone well and that the hospital has coped well. I have already said that the number of paediatric nurses—[Interruption.]
§ Mr. SpeakerOrder. I ask the House to give the Prime Minister an opportunity to answer.
§ The Prime MinisterI shall give the facts, because what one can do is governed by the professional staff that are available, whose numbers have increased over the past eight years. The numbers of doctors, nurses and paediatric nurses, and the amount of money, have all increased.
I think the hon. Gentleman does less than justice to the work of those increasing numbers of doctors and nurses. It might be better if he would thank them and congratulate them on the work that they do.
§ Sir Peter BlakerMay I support the warm welcome that my right hon. Friend has given to the stopover in this country by Mr. Gorbachev? Will she say whether his stay will be long enough to allow her to resume the fruitful dialogue that she had with him in Moscow? Is she aware that there will be a warm welcome, too, for the INF agreement that Mr. Gorbachev is going to Washington to sign, which is a complete vindication of the policy that NATO has followed for the past six years?
§ The Prime MinisterI am grateful to my right hon. Friend. I hope that Mr. Gorbachev will be here for a few hours so that we can have a good discussion both on matters affecting the Soviet Union and on the future beyond the intermediate nuclear weapons treaty, which I agree with my right hon. Friend is a vindication of the firmness of NATO and, in particular, a vindication of the attitude taken by this country.
§ Q5. Ms. ShortTo ask the Prime Minister if she will list her official engagements for Thursday 26 November.
§ The Prime MinisterI refer the hon. Lady to the reply that I gave some moments ago.
§ Ms. ShortMay I ask the Prime Minister what she proposes to do about the desperate health situation in Birmingham? It is not just one baby. Many babies have had operations cancelled and are waiting for operations and this has been going on for months. There are cancer patients awaiting treatment. I have a constituent with a secondary cancer growing in his lungs and he has not been taken into hospital because beds are temporarily closed. We had kidney patients down from Birmingham yesterday who know that there is not enough money for their treatment after April and who fear that they will die. Everyone in Birmingham—everyone in Britain—knows that the Health Service needs more money. Will she stop giving us these party political points and give us a pledge that there will be more money? The situation is now desperate and people are dying as a consequence of a lack of money for the Health Service.
§ The Prime MinisterI shall go on giving the hon. Lady facts, because she and everyone else knows that greater provision for the Health Service can be made only out of greater growth in Britain's economy, and that is being provided by the Government. Out of that 380 greater growth about 6,000 extra doctors, 64,000 extra nurses, more specialist paediatric nurses, far more provision and far more operations have been provided. This is paid for not by the Treasury or by some mythical person, but by the taxpayer. When we came to power the average family—[Interruption.]
§ Mr. SpeakerOrder.
§ Mr. FauldsPeople are dying. We do not want the Prime Minister's faked-up figures.
§ Mr. SpeakerOrder. The hon. Gentleman must contain himself.
§ The Prime MinisterThe Health Service is not free, it is paid for by the taxpayer. In 1979 the average family contributed £11 per week to the Health Service. That is £570 a year—[Interruption.] Now—if I can make myself heard — the average family contributes £29 each week, which is £1,500 per year. Families are paying for the Health Service, and their money has gone to provide an increased number of hospitals and an increased number of doctors and nurses, who are doing a very good job increasing the number of patients that they are treating.