HC Deb 05 November 1996 vol 284 cc1029-30
10. Mr. Jessel

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of the current proposals to rebuild most of the West Middlesex university hospital. [618]

Mr. Horam

Assessment of the proposals for the redevelopment of West Middlesex university hospital will be carried out when the trust submits its full business case, which is expected to be later this month.

Mr. Jessel

As the West Middlesex is a popular local hospital that gives first-class standards of treatment to patients over a wide area, will my hon. Friend, as a matter of urgency, give a fair wind to the splendid scheme under which the national health service would continue to own the freehold of the land and a 60-year lease of the buildings—and, of course, to provide free treatment?

Mr. Horam

West Middlesex university hospital is indeed a popular local hospital, just as my hon. Friend is a popular Member of Parliament. I am glad to say that his enthusiasm is contagious: it is shared by the clinicians and managers who are driving for the scheme. I can tell him, for example, that the trust and consortium that are behind the scheme are now meeting twice a week to give it maximum impetus. I hope that it will proceed at full speed.

Mr. Flynn

Is the Minister aware that the hospital is one of those in which the so-called hospital bug—methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus—has occurred? Has he read the devastating and moving speech made in the other place by Lord Fitt, who described the death of his wife from that so-called hospital bug? When will the Government look at the number of infections—according to the King's Fund, as many as 50 per cent. of hospital in-patients contract infections of some kind when they are in hospital—and when will they start to measure not the quantity of patients who go to hospital, but the quality of treatment that they receive?

Mr. Horam

The hon. Gentleman has raised an important point. MRSA is a matter of concern. He ought to know, however, that the NHS has sent guidance on the subject to local hospitals, and that local groups and clinicians will be examining it very carefully.