HC Deb 30 April 1990 vol 171 cc707-8
1. Mr. Win Griffiths:

To ask the Secretary of State for Wales when he next plans to meet the chairmen of health authorities in Wales.

4. Mr. Michael

To ask the Secretary of State for Wales when he intends to meet the chairmen of health authorities in Wales; and what matters he intends to discuss with them.

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Wales (Mr. Ian Grist)

The date and agenda for the next meeting with district health authority chairmen have not yet been determined.

Mr. Griffiths

Does the Minister believe that he should call a meeting urgently with the chairmen of the Welsh health authorities and with Mid Glamorgan in particular, because there is a serious funding crisis in the Health Service? In Mid Glamorgan the emergency ambulance service for days and afternoons has been reduced from 19 to 14 crews. Is he aware that phase 2 of the Princess of Wales hospital, which it was promised would start in the mid-1980s, has now disappeared completely off the 10-year programme? Is he aware that consultants regard that as completely unacceptable and that they are dismayed at what is happening? Will the Minister find desperately needed funds for all health authorities in the country?

Mr. Grist

The hon. Gentleman and others must face the fact that increased funding in the Health Service must cover increasing demands which may occasionally outstrip the economy and our capacity, or that of any Government, to deliver. Revenue funding of Mid Glamorgan has risen in real terms by 34 per cent. since the Government came to power. Its capital funding will rise by 12 per cent. this year. That is a major rise. We are giving special attention to the proposed new hospital for Taff Ely and Rhondda at Ynys-y-plwm. The hon. Gentleman will also be aware of the spanking new Princess of Wales hospital in Bridgend. We have not overlooked Mid Glamorgan by any margin.

Mr. Wigley

Is the Minister aware of the widespread dismay at yet another hospital closure, this time the cottage hospital in Caernarfon, which will leave the town without any casualty unit? Will he give an assurance that that closure will not go ahead until all the conditions laid down by the Secretary of State have been met and local doctors have agreed to casualty cover? Does he accept the statement by the health authority that the closure is the direct consequence of underfunding by the Welsh Office of health services in Gwynedd?

Mr. Grist

The hon. Gentleman's concern about that hospital is well known. However, as he knows, his health authority has been one of the best funded in the whole of Wales. He will also be aware that in medical terms the provision of Ysbyty Gwynnedd at Bangor is the most superior that could be provided in the county. We expect the terms and conditions under which Caernarfon cottage hospital will be closed to be observed.

Mr. Michael

Does the Minister realise that one need only travel to each part of Wales to recognise that the Health Service is suffering from underfunding under his stewardship? Every part of Wales is suffering, and his percentage figures are nonsense. They do not match the increase in Health Service costs. Does he accept that Opposition Members are appalled that he has not fixed a date for a meeting with the chairmen of the health authorities? He has an obligation to tell them how to manage with the completely inadequate funds that he is providing which are resulting in the decay of the fabric of the Health Service throughout Wales.

Mr. Grist

The hon. Gentleman gets extraordinarily worked up. The health authority chairmen can and do see Ministers when they want to. We are always available to them and, as hon. Members will know, to other people in Wales, be they local authorities or Members of Parliament. We are an extremely open Administration in that respect. The hon. Gentleman will also understand that a Health Service which is treating about 275,000 more people every year in hospital, which has cut the perinatal death rate to below that in England to one of the best in Europe, and which is providing renal dialysis to one of the best standards in Europe—from being the worst when we came to power in 1979—is not a Health Service which is failing the people of Wales.

Back to