HC Deb 13 March 2001 vol 364 c810
6. Mr. Chris Pond (Gravesham)

If he will make a statement on the proposed timetable for establishing the new community hospital in Gravesend. [151953]

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health (Ms Gisela Stuart)

The public consultation on the proposal to develop integrated health and social care facilities on the Gravesend and North Kent hospital site is due to begin this month.

Mr. Pond

I thank my hon. Friend not only for that reply but for the considerable support that she has given to our efforts to rebuild the health service in Dartford and Gravesham and for the extra resources to open the new ward at the Gravesend and North Kent hospital and to keep it open. In addition, there are plans for a community hospital of more than 100 beds with the full range of out-patient services.

Does my hon. Friend understand that after years of neglect of the health service in our area under the previous Government, my constituents are impatient to have the new community hospital in Gravesend? Will she make it clear to everybody involved in the project—and I pay tribute to the primary care trust for its work—that it is essential to stick to the time scale proposed for the community hospital? Will she also make it clear to all concerned that this is a hospital? If it has beds like a hospital, if it has nurses like a hospital and if it has out-patient services like a hospital, it is a hospital, and that is what we should call it.

Ms Stuart

Under the private finance initiative, my hon. Friend's constituents have benefited from a £94 million new hospital. In due course—I share his impatience, and certainly want it to happen on time—they will benefit not only from a new community hospital with about 100 beds and 200 day care places per week, but from extended new community facilities. The hospital is in addition to the new facilities—a new, innovative project with social services. People will benefit from extra investment and see in reality what modernisation means—bringing health and social care together under one roof.