HC Deb 17 January 1995 vol 252 cc574-5
9. Ms Coffey

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment she has made of the present level of provision of NHS continuing care beds for the elderly; and if she will make a statement.

Mr. Bowis

District health authorities are responsible for making such assessment locally and for ensuring adequate provision.

Ms Coffey

Does the Minister agree that it is crucial to have national eligibility criteria for access to NHS continuing care? It cannot be right for an elderly person in one part of the country to have to pay for health care which is free in another part of the country. How does the Minister intend to ensure that health authorities fulfil their financial obligations under the National Health Service Act 1977 and that the elderly have equal access to NHS care, irrespective of where they live?

Mr. Bowis

The answer lies partly in the continued generous funding for the national health service under this Government—£32 billion for England this year—partly in the fact that about 40 per cent. of spending on hospital and community health services goes on the 16 per cent. of people who are 65 and over and partly in the guidance that we are issuing to the health service to ensure that it continues to keep responsibility for the continuing health needs of the elderly and that it reviews, and if necessary re-provides, provision in that area. The hon. Lady must not ask me to take the place of the doctors, who ultimately decide the clinical needs of patients.

Mr. Garnier

If my hon. Friend wants to assess the provision of national health service care, would he like to visit the Coventry Road and St. Luke's hospitals in Market Harborough? Were he to do so, he would find fine examples of the success of the Government's policies and the good sense, management and operation of the Fosse health trust.

Mr. Bowis

I am sure that that is the case and that if I visited those hospitals I would see precisely what my hon. Friend describes—good quality care for people, irrespective of age, provided by the national health service within hospitals and the community.