§ 5. Mr. JackTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what has been the percentage increase in out-patient attendance in day cases and in-patients treated in the Scottish Health Service since 1979.
§ Mr. Michael ForsythBetween March 1979 and March 1989 there was an increase of 608,717, or 11.7 per cent. in out-patient attendances, an increase of 95,699 or 119.2 per cent. in day cases and an increase of 144,531, or 19.6 per cent. in in-patient discharges.
§ Mr. JackMay I, through my hon. Friend, congratulate those involved in the provisions of health care in Scotland on those remarkable figures? May I ask my hon. Friend—on the other side of the medical balance sheet—whether he is undertaking any programmes to improve health education and preventive measures in Scotland to help to contain the need for further resources?
§ Mr. ForsythI can reassure my hon. Friend. Our future priorities for the Health Service include an emphasis on preventive medicine and the new GPs' contract is intended to reward GPs who place more emphasis on preventive medicine. My hon. Friend is right to point out how remarkable those figures are. They show a Health Service that has never been better funded or treated more patients. That is the result of the Government's investment in the Health Service, which stands in stark contrast to the record of the previous Labour Government. In every year in which the Government have been in office, Health Service funding has increased. In recent times, only under the last Labour Government have cuts been made.
§ Dr. GodmanWe have been discussing the proposed changes in the provision of health care. Is the Minister aware that each and every one of the consultants at Inverclyde royal hospital voted against that hospital's opting out? Will he assure me that that balance of view against will mark the end of his proposal for the opting out of that hospital?
§ Mr. ForsythI have no proposal for the opting out of any hospital. Self-governing hospitals will remain part of the National Health Service. Self-governing status will be available on a voluntary basis to hospitals that wish to benefit from it. I should have thought that consultants and other professionals—and, indeed, Members of Parliament —would wish to wait for a proposal and then examine that proposal carefully to see whether it was in the interests of patients and the community as a whole. That is the basis on which proposals for self-governing status will be evaluated in future. It will be entirely a matter for the hospitals, including Inverclyde royal hospital, to decide 348 whether they will benefit from decisions being taken at local level rather than above their heads at health board level or by my Department.