HC Deb 16 January 1996 vol 269 c534
8. Mr. MacShane

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what monitoring he has undertaken of staffing for intensive care beds [7499]

Mr. Dorrell

It is for health authorities and trusts to determine the level of intensive care provision, including the level of staffing, that is needed by their local populations.

Mr. MacShane

Is the Secretary of State aware of the widespread concern, certainly in Rotherham, and in all other hospitals, at the cuts in intensive care beds? He will have seen the recent British Medical Association report.

I pay tribute to the work done in Rotherham in handling the recent meningitis scare by doctors, the public health authorities and school authorities. But the plain fact is that, when it comes to intensive care beds, there are severe cuts. The Secretary of State may claim that he is a one-nation Tory, but, under him, the NHS is not safe in anyone's hands.

Mr. Dorrell

The problem with the hon. Gentleman's question is that he talked about intensive care bed cuts, including some in his constituency, when the reality is that the Rotherham trust is discussing the commissioning of an extra intensive care bed and of an extra high-dependency bed in Rotherham as well. Opposition Members say that that is happening only in Rotherham, but the figures show that, compared with 1990, an extra 1,000 intensive care nurses are now employed. It simply is not true to say that there is reduced availability of intensive care beds in the national health service. What is certainly true—and this far I will go with the hon. Gentleman—is that we need to ensure that the structures in health service hospitals make the most effective possible use of the expensive resource of intensive care beds. That is why we set up a review to give advice and guidance on precisely that, the report of which I expect will be available shortly.