§ 3. Mr. BradleyTo ask the Secretary of State for Health when she last met the chairman of South Manchester health authority to discuss the future of Withington Hospital.
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health (Mr. Tom Sackville)No such discussions have taken place.
§ Mr. BradleyIs the Minister aware of the chronic shortage of hospital beds in Manchester? General practitioners find it increasingly difficult to get their patients into hospital. A local GP in Withington had to ring 999 to get my constituent, who had a suspected heart attack, into hospital, having failed to find a bed at Manchester royal infirmary, Wythenshawe hospital and Withington hospital. In the light of that appalling situation, will the Minister reject proposals to close Withington as a district general hospital with a loss of another 300 beds in Manchester, and undertake a complete review of the real hospital needs of the people of Withington and Manchester?
§ Mr. SackvilleI am certainly aware of the pressure on emergency admissions in recent months, but that does not change the overall underlying picture in Manchester. The population is declining, there are enormous advances in day care, with a dramatic effect on bed use, and many facilities and excellent hospitals, such as that in Bolton where I come from, are being built outside Manchester. All that will affect the demand for beds in the future. In several years' time, there will be over-capacity of acute beds in Manchester, despite overspending according to capitation. That needs to be addressed: hence the proposals to rationalise services between Wythenshawe and Withington.
§ Mr. McCartneyThe Minister's reply is one of the most complacent I have heard about closures. There are 97,000 people on waiting lists in the north-west, hundreds of beds in Manchester have been taken out of the system, children have been refused access to intensive care units, patients are being bussed as far away as Blackpool, and some patients have died before treatment could be given. When will the Minister make a commitment to meet the Members of Parliament for Greater Manchester about the crisis in health care in the area?
§ Mr. SackvilleMy door is open to the hon. Gentleman at any time, and he knows it. Given his obsession with beds, he must be aware that the numbers of beds has gone down in recent years, but, despite that, activity has gone up. That is a trend he cannot deny, and one which will continue.