§ 5. Miss Julie Kirkbride (Bromsgrove)When he last met the Assembly Secretary with responsibility for health to discuss the funding of the NHS in Wales. [88526]
§ The Secretary of State for Wales (Mr. Alun Michael)I am delighted to see that devolution is working through in the way that Jane Hutt has taken up her role as Health Secretary in the Assembly. She is one of four women appointed to the Assembly Cabinet. This is already making a significant impact on the serious problems of the NHS in Wales, which is in a parlous state owing to the incompetence of the last Government. The Assembly will make a significant impact towards improving that situation.
§ Miss KirkbrideI am delighted to see that, after the farce we have just experienced, the national health service 1016 is still a matter for this House. According to the Secretary of State's answer, the Government still have responsibility and they have a great deal to answer for when it comes to the NHS in Wales. The Secretary of State will be aware that, on 31 March 1997, the waiting list for the waiting list—people diagnosed by their general practitioner as needing treatment and waiting to see a consultant to be put on an official waiting list—was 5,956 in the Principality. By 31 May 1999, 26,094 people were waiting for their initial hospital appointment. That is an increase of 400 per cent. as a result of the Government's policies for the health of the people in Wales. Is it not time that the Government admitted that, under Labour, the health service is getting worse?
§ Mr. MichaelThe hon. Lady clearly does not understand the damage done by the previous Conservative Government, for which she and her hon. Friends should apologise. The hon. Lady also does not understand that these matters are now the responsibility of the National Assembly, which is seeking to tackle them.
§ Mr. Win Griffiths (Bridgend)Will my right hon. Friend remind me whether the amount of money spent on the health service has increased substantially ahead of inflation? Is anything being done about the burden of debt that faced the health service before 1997 and which it is taking so much time to get grips with?
§ Mr. MichaelMy hon. Friend is absolutely right. In the period up to 1 July, strenuous efforts were made to prepare the ground for the Assembly's taking over the NHS in Wales and to enable it to tackle precisely the problems my hon. Friend raises. A stocktake that I set in motion will be available to the Assembly as it takes up its functions, to inform it as it tries to improve the parlous situation that he describes.
§ Mr. Nigel Evans (Ribble Valley)Today, it would seem that the Secretary of State for Wales is hardly responsible for anything to do with Wales. Welsh questions will increasingly become a laughing stock if that is allowed to continue. However, the right hon. Gentleman is responsible for the total block grant out of which health spending comes, so perhaps he can say whether he believes sufficient resources are being spent on the NHS in Wales.
The Secretary of State knows that waiting lists for admission to hospital are getting longer and that each extra person waiting means stress and pain for those involved. On 16 June, David Davies, an Assembly Member, wrote to the right hon. Gentleman about a Newport man who has been told by his consultant that he needs a quadruple heart bypass and that he could die within six months. The man is now on a 10 to 12-month waiting list for an operation at Morriston hospital, Swansea. What will the Secretary of State do? What action will he take to ensure that that life-saving operation is carried out as soon as possible? Is it not time that the Government woke up to the fact that it is waiting times that are important, not merely waiting lists?
§ Mr. MichaelIt is the hon. Gentleman who is a laughing stock—his synthetic anger is pathetic. The Conservative Government failed the NHS in Wales. He is right to say that there is a responsibility on the Secretary 1017 of State to provide resources. Massive additional resources have been provided, but the problem is the state of administration and the financial chaos in which the Conservative Government left the NHS in Wales.
The matters to which the hon. Gentleman refers are not matters for this House, but matters for the Assembly. That is why he quoted an Assembly Member raising the question.