§ Mr. Peter Shore (Bethnal Green and Stepney)I beg leave to present a petition on behalf of the staff, students and clients of Tower Hamlets and surrounding health districts. The petition draws attention to the increasing difficulty in providing adequate and timely health care to the users of the London hospital and the other health services in Tower Hamlets.
The petitioners pray that this honourable House supports the maintenance and provision for patient care in England and Wales, at least at the level which existed in early 1981, bearing in mind the need to provide adequate central support for health care in underprivileged districts such as Tower Hamlets and to provide career structures and options adequate to attract essential nursing and paramedical staff and ensue that they remain in the service without detriment to other aspects of patient care services until such time as any current review on National Health Service funding has been completed and until any new proposals for National Health Service provision has been evaluated, shown to be practical, cost-effective and acceptable to the electorate.
Among the 843 signatories are 66 National Health Service consultants, 103 junior doctors and general practitioners, 105 medical and dental students, 84 trained nurses, 15 midwives, 56 student nurses, 39 social workers, 73 patients, 10 porters, six telephonists and 164 other hospital staff.
I fully support this petition and hope that the House will respond to its demands.
§ To lie upon the Table.