HC Deb 21 January 1997 vol 288 cc729-30
5. Mr. Gapes

To ask the Secretary of State for Health when he next plans to visit Redbridge to discuss the financial position of Redbridge and Waltham Forest health authority and the situation in local hospitals. [10360]

Mr. Malone

The national health service executive is in regular contact with national health service Organisations on behalf of Ministers. I have no immediate plans to visit Redbridge and Waltham Forest health authority.

Mr. Gapes

Why not? Does not the Minister know that, in my health authority, there is a £6 million deficit, that Whipps Cross hospital has cancelled elective admissions since just after Christmas because it cannot cope with accident and emergency admissions, and that King George hospital has 97 per cent. bed occupancy? People are frequently left on trolleys for 12, 15 or 20 hours. Why does not the Minister have the courage to come to my local hospital? I will take him there and show him the problems that the Government have created.

Mr. Malone

If invited, I shall visit the hon. Gentleman's constituency, and I shall be delighted to see the excellent work that has been carried out by the trust in his health authority. He fails to recognise the additional investment that has been made available for this year—an increase of £1.7 million in real terms, a further £4.4 million funding for strategic change and £845,000 for priority services for the rest of the year. Much of that money is now being deployed in trusts in the hon. Gentleman's constituency. I will gladly come along and celebrate the success of that fund as it builds even more facilities.

Mr. Duncan Smith

I encourage my hon. Friend to visit that health authority. Notwithstanding any difficulties that it, like many other health authorities, experiences, will my hon. Friend point out that more than £23 million of capital expenditure has been put into the main hospital there, Whipps Cross hospital, which has resulted in brand new surgeries and a brand new accident and emergency wing, from which local people now benefit?

Mr. Malone

A cross-party invitation is almost impossible to resist, even with a busy diary. If invited formally, I shall certainly try to make time to acknowledge the progress in the constituency of the hon. Member for Ilford, South (Mr. Gapes) and the progress to which my hon. Friend drew attention—progress that would not take place if a Government ever got into office who could not make the pledge made by the Prime Minister, that a Conservative Government would continue to fund the health service and to increase funding in real terms year on year.

Ms Jowell

The nation would be reassured if the Minister would face up to the crisis that is confronting accident and emergency departments throughout the country. What does he have to say to the nurse whom I met recently at Edgware hospital—

Madam Speaker

Order. This question refers to hospitals that are local to Redbridge and Waltham Forest.

Ms Jowell

As at Whipps Cross hospital in Redbridge, which has also been gripped by crisis, the nurse said: It has been like a war zone here. We have had to put up 18 beds in the minor injuries unit and the Government tells us that there is no crisis. When will the Government face the fact that there is a winter crisis in the national health service?

Mr. Malone

I would be delighted to meet the ambulatory nurse to whom the hon. Lady refers. She seems to move with great felicity from one health authority to another, depending on the question that is posed. I would tell that nurse that I am sure that she recognises the investment that the Government have made in the health service. If the hon. Lady wants to set the nation's mind at rest, perhaps she and her Front-Bench colleagues could stop drumming up spoof reports—which are based on no facts whatsoever—to scare the public.