§ 7. Mr. Roy HughesTo ask the Secretary of Stale for Health what recent representations he has received from the British Medical Association concerning the funding of the NHS. [615]
§ Mr. DorrellI am routinely in contact with the British Medical Association. I last met the chairman last week.
§ Mr. HughesThe Secretary of State will be aware that the BMA has warned that the hospital service could collapse this winter. What is he doing to prevent such an eventuality? Would it not be wiser to concentrate finances on nurses, doctors, wards and operating facilities rather than turn this great service into a haven for bureaucrats?
§ Mr. DorrellThe hon. Gentleman has not caught up with his party leader, who acknowledges that the national health service needs managing; he also acknowledges that the traditional national health service was undermanaged, so there is no doubt about the importance of strong management in the health service to ensure that resources are made available to treat the growing number of patients who come into our hospitals.
The hon. Gentleman spoke about the views of the BMA and the hospital service. It is an absolutely regular annual cycle that we hear of problems at this time of year as budgets are being set. The hon. Gentleman might like to know that, in addition to other reports coming out of the health service at the moment, a report from the National Association of Health Authorities and Trusts says:
Essentially, the NHS is in a robust position.The national health service has benefited from growing resources and is treating a growing number of patients. The Opposition cannot accustom themselves to that fact.
§ Mr. RoweDoes my right hon. Friend accept that many of us would take what the BMA says about the health service with rather more conviction if the BMA were not so keen constantly to support doctors who in private it would admit should be got rid of, and that the trade union activities within the health service by which support is given to manifestly incompetent doctors is a disgrace?
§ Mr. DorrellI am not going to get engaged in an exchange of insults with the BMA. I welcome the fact that the chairman of the BMA endorsed the primary care Bill, which the Government will introduce during this 1026 Session, as an important step forward in the further development of primary care. I also welcome the recognition within the BMA that the Government are delivering more money year by year to the health service, with the result that the health service is treating more patients year by year. Those are the two key facts about the present position in the national health service.
§ Mr. SpearingDoes the Secretary of State recall that, last July, I asked, in a written question, what were the deficits in funding for the health service. The Department replied that the figures were not suitable for publication. [HON. MEMBERS: "Oh!"] Yes; indeed, they were only published after an Adjournment debate on 16 October last. Does the Secretary of State agree that the figures that he has now placed in the Library show that the estimated cumulative deficit on 31 March next year will be at least £120 million net? Do not the deficits and, indeed, the efforts to obscure them from Parliament and the public, show that the Government are not fit to look after the health service and that it is not safe in their hands at all? How would he refute such a charge, bearing in mind the facts that I have just mentioned?
§ Mr. DorrellThe variety of red herrings coming from Opposition Members is amazing. All of them are designed to obscure two central facts about the national health service. Since 1990, resources have increased by a quarter, and the number of patients treated has increased by a third. The hon. Gentleman asked us to publish some information. Now, he criticises us for publishing it. What we have seen in the health service is extra money treating more patients. That is what the health service exists to deliver.
§ Mr. Nigel EvansDoes my right hon. Friend agree that our commitment to the national health service can be seen in each of our constituencies? For instance, at the Royal Preston hospital, which he visited last year, in my constituency, a new cancer unit is being built, at a cost of more than £5 million. A gynaecology unit will be moved to the same site, at a cost of more than £12 million, and earlier this year a new day care centre opened, at a cost of more £1 million. While I am on my feet, I invite my right hon. Friend to come to Fulwood to visit the hospital to see some of the good work that is happening in our constituencies.
§ Mr. DorrellMy problem is that, each year, I would have to visit every one of my hon. Friends' constituencies in order to keep up with the good news and the developments in the NHS. The problem for those on the Opposition Front Bench is that the Government are committed to providing more money year by year for the health service. That is a pledge which the Leader of the Opposition and the shadow Chancellor will not allow the hon. Member for Islington, South and Finsbury (Mr. Smith) to give. Labour will not make that pledge.
§ Mr. Chris SmithIs it not the case that everyone, including now the Government, agrees that the health service is facing a real crisis this winter? [HON. MEMBERS: "No."] What precisely will the Secretary of State's much trumpeted extra money from the Chancellor do to solve this 1027 immediate crisis, or does he intend to spend next year's money to ward off this year's problems? If so, will we not end up with exactly the same crisis in a year's time?
§ Mr. DorrellThe hon. Gentleman has blown it again—any excuse, any diversion, any subject other than what those on the Opposition Front Bench think should happen. When the hon. Gentleman is asked what he thinks should happen, answer comes there none.
§ Lady Olga MaitlandDoes my right hon. Friend agree that he has nothing to be ashamed of in the health care at St. Helier hospital in my constituency? Is he aware that that magnificent hospital provides more treatments and operations and is opening more specialist units than ever before—progress based on an increase in Government spending on health of 79 per cent. in real terms since 1979? The patients are grateful, and delighted with the service.
§ Mr. DorrellI am grateful to my hon. Friend for another local story illustrating the national picture—more money treating more patients in the people's health service supported by the Government.