HC Deb 20 May 1997 vol 294 cc491-2
1. Mr. Nicholas Winterton

To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on his Department's funding priorities for the future of the NHS. [272]

The Secretary of State for Health (Mr. Frank Dobson)

We are committed to raise spending on the national health service in real terms every year. We intend to ensure that every pound spent in the NHS provides maximum benefit to patients. That is why we are determined to end the internal market introduced by the previous Government, which has proved enormously expensive as well as unfair to patients and repugnant to members of both the medical and nursing professions.

Mr. Winterton

I congratulate the right hon. Gentleman on his appointment to one of the most important portfolios in the Government and I genuinely wish him well. I am sure he realises my total commitment to the health service in all the years that I have been a Member of Parliament. Will he therefore indicate whether he believes that the Government will be able to equal the 75 per cent. additional resources above inflation achieved by the last Government if they take into account the increasing needs of the elderly and the tremendous opportunities for the health service arising from the advancement of medical science and technology?

Mr. Dobson

I thank the hon. Gentleman for his kind words and pay tribute to the way in which he has always stuck up for the national health service, especially when he was Chairman of the Select Committee on Health. I can tell him that we are determined to end the endless reorganisations on which previous Governments have insisted, which have consumed vast amounts of resources and forced hard-working people in the NHS to reapply for their own jobs. We are determined to end the paper chase that the present system has introduced and to ensure that the resources that Parliament has voted are deployed to help patients rather than to bolster a bureaucracy.

Ms Abbott

When he considers his funding priorities for the health service, will my right hon. Friend take into account strong feelings in Hackney about the future of Bart's hospital, especially those about the Queen Elizabeth II children's hospital? As things stand, the Queen Elizabeth II may be closed before replacement facilities are fully on stream. Will he bear in mind local feeling?

Mr. Dobson

I will always bear in mind local feelings. I have already been approached by innumerable hon. Members on both sides of the House about local feelings about their local hospitals. We shall not be able to oblige everyone, but I can assure my hon. Friend that when we promised a review of health services in London, we meant that that would be a real review; it will not simply endorse the decisions of the previous Government.

Mr. Simon Hughes

The Secretary of State knows that I warmly welcome him and his team to their responsibilities, and I warmly welcome their commitment to reduce the waiting list by 100,000 as a first step. Will a test of the success of this Administration be that that target is met in the next 12 months; and, if not by then, by when?

Mr. Dobson

Our commitment was, first, to reduce spending on bureaucracy in the health service. We have instructed the chief executive of the health service, and he has accepted the instruction, to reduce spending on administration by £100 million in the current financial year. That money will be deployed in helping people on the waiting list and, specifically, in reducing the waiting list for cancer treatment. Beyond that, I am never going to stand at the Dispatch Box and make promises that I am not sure that I can keep.

Mr. Dorrell

Set a deadline.

Mr. Dobson

I am being barracked by the Secretary of State—[Laughter.]—the Secretary of State who left us with an inheritance of lengthening waiting lists, increasing waiting times, 36 health authorities in debt, 111 health trusts in debt, a shortage of nurses and a shortage of doctors; and he asks me to start setting artificial deadlines. What a cheek.

Audrey Wise

While I congratulate my right hon. Friend on his appointment, may I recommend that he considers the recent Select Committee reports on children's health, which contained many helpful suggestions, and urge him to ensure that we improve the care given to sick children, especially in relation to the availability of qualified children's nurses for home care?

Mr. Dobson

I can give that undertaking. We are keen to do all we can to implement the Select Committee's recommendations about children's health.

Mr. Horam

On the promises that the right hon. Gentleman might keep, does he recall that the Labour party made a specific promise to eliminate mixed-sex wards? Does he have a plan to do that? Will he publish the plan and, if so, when?

Mr. Dobson

I understand that the Government who have just left office promised to get rid of mixed-sex wards. We have made inquiries about the progress that has been made. As far as we can see, under the programme that they left us with, in very many hospitals there was no possibility of eliminating mixed-sex wards in the 20th century. We will speed up that process.

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