HC Deb 16 May 1995 vol 260 cc143-4
10. Mr. Win Griffiths

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans she has to change the way in which statistics are collected for publication on activities in the NHS. [22860]

Mr. Sackville

There are no specific major changes in prospect, but each statistical return is reviewed at least once every three years, and every item is subjected to rigorous examination.

Mr. Griffiths

Many people will be disappointed with that reply because a strong case exists for radically overhauling NHS statistics. For instance, does the Minister agree that we should publish statistics on the readmission of patients to hospital so that we can measure the quality of the care that they receive there, the success of the treatment and the availability of good quality community care?

Mr. Sackville

The hon. Gentleman is aware that in England we went over from deaths and discharges to a system of finished consultant episodes some years ago. Wales did not follow at that time, but it is now setting up a patient episode database which roughly mirrors our system. That is good news because the new Körner statistics are a proper measure of patient activity.

Mr. John Marshall

Does my hon. Friend accept that, however the figures are collated, there is strong evidence of a shortage of beds in London for the mentally ill, as was discussed in the Adjournment debate last Wednesday?

Mr. Sackville

We are making considerable progress in the provision of intermediate beds and in all other areas of mental health. The Under-Secretary of State, my hon. Friend the Member for Battersea (Mr. Bowis), has replied to such debates on numerous occasions and has explained the plans that are in place to ensure that we improve mental health services everywhere in the country.

Ms Jowell

The Minister used statistics to defend the Secretary of State's reputation and to obscure the real information about patient care, which only goes to prove that Disraeli was right about statistics. Will the Minister now undertake to publish figures for the number of patients treated by the NHS and not what Ministers' jargon calls finished consultant episodes?

Mr. Sackville

I begin by welcoming the hon. Lady to the Opposition Front Bench at Question Time. Unless we have reliable statistics which show the activity all over the health service, we do not know what is happening. There is no point in relying on individual incidents which are entirely unrepresentative of the health service, as the hon. Lady and her friends in the press continually do.

Mr. Hendry

Is not the reality that the Opposition parties wish to change the way in which statistics are calculated because they are horrified at the number of additional patients being treated every year and appalled by the fact that waiting lists are falling and the only way they can achieve bad statistics is by changing the basis on which the statistics are collected? Can my hon. Friend confirm that in my constituency we have no patients waiting for more than 12 months for an operation? Is that not the statistic that really matters?

Mr. Sackville

My hon. Friend is right. If one ignores the fact that 120 patients are being treated now for every 100 treated before the reforms, which is an embarrassing statistic for the Opposition, it is impossible to measure the success of the reforms.