HC Deb 24 February 1998 vol 307 cc162-3
7. Mr. Hinchliffe

What steps he is taking to improve public accountability in the NHS. [29321]

Mr. Dobson

As part of our efforts to improve accountability in the NHS, I have required all health boards to meet in public, I have opened up the appointments process, I am placing a duty to co-operate on all parts of the NHS and I require every health authority to prepare a health-improvement programme for its area, in consultation with all interested local organisations.

Mr. Hinchliffe

Will my right hon. Friend take steps to end the practice whereby local health authorities blatantly mislead the public during consultation on closures or changes in the use of health facilities? Will he consider as an example what has happened in Wakefield? A few years ago, Manygates maternity hospital, where I and my children were born, was closed and the health authority gave a clear commitment to build purpose-built maternity provision at Pinderfields general hospital. Not only has that promise never been fulfilled, but there is now a proposal to remove maternity facilities completely from Wakefield. As a Yorkshireman, does he agree that it is inconceivable that people will no longer have the chance to be born in the capital of the West Riding of Yorkshire—my constituency of Wakefield?

Mr. Dobson

I am not sure that I should refer to anything being inconceivable in relation to maternity services, even in Yorkshire. Certainly, one problem facing the national health service when it is trying to re-establish its reputation with local people is that there have been examples of clear promises being made—that if people went along with one closure there would be an opening to compensate, or something of that sort—which were not delivered.

We are determined to ensure, first, that the process of consultation is not merely a period of time but a genuine consultation and, secondly, that, if local promises are made, local promises are kept. The Minister of State, my hon. Friend the Member for Darlington (Mr. Milburn), and I had to make very sure in some funding allocations that we had a hand in that certain promises were kept. If the funds had been allocated according to the propositions that came to us, the NHS would have been going back on promises, but we stopped that.

Mr. Maples

One measure of accountability is the publication of waiting lists. Why does the Secretary of State think those are rising?

Mr. Dobson

At the danger of sounding like the right hon. Member for South-West Surrey (Mrs. Bottomley), which I should hate to do—she has now left the Chamber having asked her question—in the last quarter for which figures were produced, the people working in the health service dealt with more emergency cases than ever before in the history of the NHS. They also dealt with more waiting list cases than in any previous third quarter of the financial year. The only trouble is that the number of people joining the list grew faster than the number being treated. We shall have to see to that, not by reducing the number joining it but by treating more.

Mr. Maples

Is not the true reason why waiting lists are rising that real increases in spending under this Government of 1.2 per cent this year and 1.5 per cent. for next are running at half the level of the past 18 years? Until the right hon. Gentleman can increase funding levels to what they were for the past 18 years, waiting lists will continue to rise. Far from redeeming his promise to reduce waiting lists by 100,000, he will watch them continue to rise at that rate for the foreseeable future.

Mr. Dobson

I remind the hon. Gentleman that, when the Thatcher Government came to power, about 750,000 people were on the waiting lists. The figure did not go over a million until that Government stupidly introduced the internal market, which contributed to lengthening waiting lists. The money we are spending this year includes £300 million more than the previous Conservative Government had budgeted for this year. That £300 million has been spent to ensure that emergency and urgent cases are properly dealt with. Next year, we intend to spend £1.9 billion, which is £1.2 billion more than the previous Government put in their Budget. If he is not satisfied with spending levels, he should talk to the right hon. and learned Member for Rushcliffe (Mr. Clarke), who was responsible for deciding those things.