§ 1. Mr. Stewart:To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what plans he has for the future of the Mearnskirk hospital site, Newton Mearns; and if he will make a statement. [30071]
§ The Minister of State, Scottish Office (Lord James Douglas-Hamilton)The board has asked the Victoria Infirmary NHS trust to develop a new 60-bed elderly care facility on the site, resulting in much improved accommodation for frail elderly patients which matches the assessed future needs of local people in that sector.
§ Mr. StewartI thank my hon. Friend for that helpful reply. I should also like to thank the Greater Glasgow health board and the Victoria trust for the recent constructive and useful meetings that they have had with me. Does my hon. Friend agree that the board has been sensible to abandon the European procurement process and contract with the trust? As I understand it—perhaps my hon. Friend will confirm this—the trust will need to put in a detailed application to the management executive. Can he assure my constituents that that application will be treated speedily and sympathetically in the light of the importance of the project for the frail elderly?
§ Lord James Douglas-HamiltonYes, that seems a sensible way to proceed. The trust will need to produce a business case explaining why public financing is necessary and I can assure my hon. Friend that we will look at this sympathetically and speedily.
§ Mr. McAllionThe hon. Member for Eastwood (Mr. Stewart) may qualify as a frail elderly patient when he hears the result of the next election in the Eastwood constituency.
Can the Minister confirm that the Victoria trust is the same NHS trust that is currently privatising its cleaning, its catering, its portering and its estates services under pressure from underfunding from the Government? Can the Minister confirm that the development is taking place on the site where NHS land was recently sold off to private housing developers and which is currently being used for private profit on behalf of those private housing developers? Will he, for once, own up to the fact that, under the banner of the private finance initiative, the Government are privatising anything and everything that can be turned to a profit inside the national health service?
If the Minister is looking for good news stories about health in the run-up to the general election, I can make a suggestion. Why does he not announce that the Government are abandoning the Tory privatisation of the health service, Tory GP fundholding and the Tory internal market in the NHS? That is the only good news that the voters in Scotland want to hear.
§ Lord James Douglas-HamiltonWe cannot abandon something that we are not engaged in. The hon. Gentleman must appreciate that NHS services will remain 590 free at the point of delivery. Tender specifications for hospital building, which will bring about much more speedy building, are to be welcomed. The leader of the hon. Gentleman's party has said that he believes in the use of private finance, so the hon. Gentleman should address his remarks to his own leader.