HC Deb 19 October 1999 vol 336 cc250-1
13. Mr. Peter Lilley (Hitchin and Harpenden)

If he will commission a study of the effect of mergers of accident and emergency units on clinical outcomes. [92596]

The Minister of State, Department of Health (Mr. John Denham)

In considering whether to merge accident and emergency services we review a range of aspects of service quality, such as the availability of specialist doctors and nurses, access to investigation such as CT scanning and specialist back-up in hospitals. We must take other factors into account, such as location and accessibility of service. It is essential to ensure that we modernise all our A and E programmes, and, as my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health said, we have a programme to modernise every A and E department that requires such investment.

Mr. Lilley

I thank the Minister for his answer, but think that it could have been put more tersely—"No." Can he confirm that although Labour opposed all hospital closures and promised before the general election to stop them, the Government plan no fewer than 80 closures across the country? The justification given for closing the accident and emergency unit at St. Albans, and for similar proposals elsewhere in Hertfordshire, is that it will improve the clinical outcome for patients. Before any more closures of accident and emergency departments, there should surely be a proper study to demonstrate that larger units do indeed result in improved clinical outcomes. Will the Minister carry out such a study?

Mr. Denham

In every case, we will make sure that the measures that we take are in the interests of delivering the best quality of patient care. It is not only what happens in accident and emergency departments that is important: events there link with what happens to a patient before he or she arrives at that department—including the quality of paramedic care—and the quality of support available in a hospital once a patient has been admitted. The right hon. Gentleman was a member of a Conservative Government who cut 100,000 hospital beds, so he is the wrong person in the wrong position to raise this matter. The changes that we bring about will be in the best interests of patients.