§ 3. Mrs. GormanTo ask the Secretary of State for Wales what is the cost to the national health service in Wales of treating women suffering from strokes, osteoporosis and senility; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. Nicholas BennettThe treatments to which my hon. Friend refers are specialist treatments and information on them is not kept at Welsh Office level.
§ Mrs. GormanI thank my hon. Friend for that reply. Would he like me to give him the bad news first, which is that more women in Wales are killed or severely disabled by those complaints than by all other medical complaints put together? However, the good news is that those complaints are preventable by the use of hormone replacement therapy. That medical treatment is available in two hospitals in Wales, but they operate on only two days a week. Does my hon. Friend agree that the half a million or more women in Wales should be able to receive specialist menopause care in more hospitals? May I look 5 forward to my hon. Friend's Department investigating this matter with a view to improving the level of those facilities?
§ Mr. BennettI thank my hon. Friend for that question. Hormone replacement therapy is available on prescription on the clinical judgment of the general practitioner or consultant concerned. It must be for the patient and her GP or consultant to look at the advantages and disadvantages of HRT. It is not a matter on which Ministers should proclaim a view one way or the other. Nevertheless, HRT is available on prescription to women who require it.
§ Mr. Denzil DaviesIs the Minister aware that two of the illnesses that are mentioned in the main question, strokes and senility, are part of the aging processes? However good the acute services and whatever the life expectancy, will not there always be a need for hospitals to deal with such illnesses among the chronically sick elderly? In those circumstances, will the hon. Gentleman reconsider East Dyfed health authority's proposals to close the Mynyddmawr hospital in my constituency, which provides proper care for women and men who suffer from such illnesses?
§ Mr. BennettThe right hon. Gentleman would not expect me to comment on a matter that is the subject of consultation—[Interruption.] I do not comment on matters that are out for public consultation because at the end of the day I shall have to take a decision, and there is no point in doing so before the public have been consulted. I am sorry that some Labour Members do not appreciate that. Under the community care arrangements that come into effect on 1 April 1993, we want more people to be treated in their own homes. We want to avoid, as far as possible, institutionalising people by sending them into hospital. We want them to be treated in a caring environment in their own home. However, there will always remain a need for hospitals and it is for the health authorities in each district to make sure that such accommodation is available.