§ 6. Ms LynneTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans his Department has to review the travel cost allowance and facilities provided for overnight accommodation for low-income parents of children undergoing major surgery outside their locality. [33214]
§ Mr. BowisThe 1993 Audit Commission report "Children First" showed that most hospitals provide facilities for parents to stay overnight at no charge. The hospital travel costs scheme for taking a child to hospital is kept under review. Community care grants for hospital visiting of children are a matter for my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Social Security.
§ Ms LynneI am grateful to the Minister for that reply, but does he not think it unacceptable that parents whose children have to have major surgery in an area outside 1440 their own have to search for funding either from the social fund or from charities to enable all their costs to be met? A constituent of mine eventually managed to obtain funding from the social fund, but it did not meet all the costs. She went to see her daughter who was having surgery in Birmingham but found it very difficult to manage. Will the Minister review the situation and introduce a rule whereby all NHS hospitals provide not only accommodation but transport costs?
§ Mr. BowisThe hon. Lady says that families should not have to hunt for funds. I have here a guide that contains information for parents of children going to hospital. We have a very good system of support for families on low incomes—if they are taking a child to hospital, they are covered by the hospital travel costs scheme and if they are visiting, they can have access to social fund community care grants. There is discretion for those above income support level if their journeys are regular and frequent.
The hon. Lady should think carefully about what she said about travel beyond local boundaries. If a child is ill, one of course wishes that child to go wherever the best treatment is, and there are now many hospitals in major centres around the country where careful consideration is given to the needs of families. Increasingly, there are beds for parents and even beds next to the children's beds. I hope that the hon. Lady will consider what a success story that is.
§ Dame Jill KnightWill my hon. Friend not follow that line of questioning and give help only to children who have had major surgery? Does he accept that although leukaemia sufferers, for example, may not need major surgery, their parents need to be with them? Is he aware that voluntary bodies have set up hostels for just such cases, as happened in Birmingham? Will he listen with a sympathetic ear to any of them who ask for help?
§ Mr. BowisI will always listen with a sympathetic ear to my hon. Friend. I know well of the success story of the voluntary hostels in Birmingham to which she has referred and I shall certainly look at it. As I promised, we shall keep the whole scheme under review. She knows too of the remarkably good facilities in the Birmingham children's hospital, with some 29 parents' beds and five flatlets available for families. There has been progress in that area and we want it to continue.