Accident and Casualty Department, Haringey (Hansard, 12 May 1992)

§ 1. Mrs. Roche
To ask the Secretary of State for Health if she has any plans to set up an accident and emergency casualty department in the borough of Haringey.

§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health (Mr. Tom Sackville)
No. As the hon. Lady will be aware, the residents of Haringey receive accident and emergency services from excellent local hospitals.

§ Mrs. Roche
Is the Minister aware that the two local hospitals, Whittington and North Middlesex, are extremely overstretched and in a financial crisis and that a consultant at North Middlesex hospital estimates that if it were to keep to its contracts for paediatric care it would have to turn away 600 sick children seeking admission from accident and emergency treatment? Does that not make a sham of the pledge in the Gracious Speech to improve the quality of the national health service?

§ Mr. Sackville
No. There is no question of any patients being turned away from either hospital. I suggest to the hon. Lady that she might like to take a step back from her party's usual policy of denigration from a distance, visit the accident and emergency units and let me know of her impressions.

§ Mr. Evennett
Will my hon. Friend confirm that the Government are determined to improve health services for the whole of Greater London and to ensure that the needs of London are matched by the resources to improve health care for everyone in the capital?

§ Mr. Sackville
I thank my hon. Friend for those observations. No residents of Haringey are more than 3 miles from one of the accident and emergency units. There is no reason why they should not have an excellent service.

§ Mr. Bernie Grant
North Middlesex hospital might be three miles from south Tottenham where my constituents live, but on a Saturday afternoon, especially when Spurs are playing, the High road becomes virtually a war zone, which means that my constituents are not able to get to the hospital. What will the Minister do about that?

§ Mr. Sackville
I am aware of various complaints that the hon. Gentleman has made about North Middlesex hospital. As far as I know, none of the complaints that the Department has received has involved football matches. There is at least one complaint, however, on which I intend to receive a report.