HC Deb 18 July 1995 vol 263 cc1435-6
2. Ms Church

To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many accident and emergency departments have been temporarily closed in the last month. [33209]

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health (Mr. Tom Sackville)

That information is not routinely collected, but I can tell the hon. Lady that the London ambulance service has no record of any temporary closures in the area of her constituency during the past month.

Ms Church

I thank the Minister for his reply, but I am extremely shocked that such figures are not available nationally. The figures from the London ambulance service supplied to me show that in June alone eight units were temporarily or partially closed and a further seven were put on "avoid admittance". The Minister must respond to the fact that there is a serious and excess demand for accident and emergency places, particularly in London, and I ask him to review his policy, particularly on Oldchurch hospital, because at the moment the demand there is excessive.

Mr. Sackville

Our hospitals are now seeing 13 million attendances a day which is a remarkable achievement for which the hon. Lady should give credit. This month, reasons for temporary closures included burst water mains in two cases, a power failure, an orthopaedic registrar taken ill and a shortage of junior medical staff. The hon. Lady should not seek to trivialise the difficulties that staff face.

Sir Sydney Chapman

Having read the report of the Royal College of Surgeons containing the shocking statistic that one in four deaths in our accident and emergency departments is avoidable, does my hon. Friend agree that a significant reason for that is the fact that too many accident and emergency departments are fragmented and cannot deal with every type of accident? If the paramount priority of our NHS is to save lives, at least in our more densely populated areas there should be fewer but more comprehensively equipped accident and emergency departments which, apart from anything else, would ensure greater cover by consultants.

Mr. Sackville

I welcome what my hon. Friend says because accident and emergency care has developed and changed more than almost any other part of the health service in recent years. Two things are needed: a network of paramedics—highly trained ambulance staff—who can treat patients on the ground and take them promptly to hospitals, and a network of high-tech accident and emergency units with access to all the major specialties. This is not about politics but about the medical facts of survival in accident and emergency units.

Mrs. Beckett

I join the hon. Member for Blaby (Mr. Robathan) in welcoming the Secretary of State to his new responsibility. The Minister's answer about accident and emergency departments and temporary closures is extraordinary. He says that this is an area of medicine that has changed more than any other. One of the changes, as he should be aware, is that we have seen a pattern of temporary closures of accident and emergency units across the country—in Peterborough, Hull, Wales and Scotland. Clearly, there is a serious problem.

Does the hon. Gentleman recognise that, first, that is the kind of information that the public want and need, not the stuff in the league tables which the British Medical Association recently called pointless and misleading, and that it is his duty and that of his Department to collect information about what are serious gaps in the service?

Mr. Sackville

The right hon. Lady is being ridiculous. The amount of time for which accident and emergency units are closed is a tiny fraction of the number of hours during which they are in operation. It is absurd to suggest that units do not inform each other of problems as they arise, or that they do not have systems enabling them to inform ambulance services.

Closures will happen from time to time. Accident and emergency work is unpredictable: there may be large surges of demand, staff may not be able to come to work, and numerous other problems may arise.

Mrs. Roe

First, may I add my congratulations to those that my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State has already received on his appointment?

Will my hon. Friend confirm that consultant expansion in accident and emergency services has taken place more rapidly than in any other specialty, with more than 100 extra consultants appointed within the past 10 years?

Mr. Sackville

That is true. The new faculty of accident and emergency came into being only a couple of years ago. There has been a rapid increase in the number of specialists, and a growing realisation that the latest techniques in accident and emergency treatment and resuscitation save many lives that would otherwise not have been saved.

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