§ 6. Paul Farrelly (Newcastle-under-Lyme) (Lab)What investment is being made in the national health service in north Staffordshire. [177290]
§ The Secretary of State for Health (Dr. John Reid)For the current financial year, 2004–05, the four primary care trusts in north Staffordshire have been allocated a total of £478 million, an increase of £41.4 million, or 9.49 per cent., since the previous year. For the next financial year, 2005–06, the increase will be a further 9.06 per cent., taking the total allocation to £521.4 million.
§ Paul FarrellyThe NHS is indeed making great strides in north Staffordshire, including a brand new hospital, a new medical school at Keele university and brand new health centres across the whole area. However, after the next election, will it be the Government's policy to continue to invest in that way in the NHS, in north Staffordshire and across the country, or to drive the NHS out of existence within five years?
§ Dr. ReidMy hon. Friend makes the point that there is a need for long-term and sustained investment in the national health service to make up for the 20 years of under-investment before this Government came to office. We will continue that investment at the present level for another four years. We will not return to the days of under-investment and starvation of our hospitals with the previous number of nurses, nor do we intend to charge patients to allow them to jump the queues on the basis of how much money they have in 135 their pockets to contribute towards doing so. The degree of power and choice for NHS patients should depend not on the size of their wallets, but on exactly what their medical needs are. The Labour party will always defend that principle.
§ Mr. Tim Yeo (South Suffolk) (Con)I pay a warm tribute to the staff at the North Staffordshire hospital, but will the Secretary of State confirm that, despite their best efforts, three out of 10 out-patients at that hospital wait longer than 13 weeks for an appointment? Will he confirm that that hospital has under-achieved in readmitting patients whose operations were cancelled for non-clinical reasons? Will he confirm that, in the past year, MRSA rates have increased at the North Staffordshire hospital? In that respect, will he confirm that the problems that they face are typical of the whole NHS—that more operations are cancelled than in 1997, that the number of hospital-acquired infections is much higher than in 1997 and that far more people are waiting far longer for serious treatments, such as radiotherapy, than before? Is it not the case that, under Labour, administrators are being hired at three times the rate at which doctors are being hired? It is no surprise that, under Labour, taxpayers have paid for a 37 per cent. rise in spending and seen a 5 per cent. rise in activity.
§ Dr. ReidFive minutes ago, Opposition Members talked about their affection for NHS staff. Now, once again, they brand them all as useless bureaucrats. That is the nature of the Opposition's commitment to the NHS. I cannot confirm any of the points that the hon. Gentleman made about North Staffordshire hospital. I can confirm, however, that, under this Government, that hospital has had two new theatres, additional critical care beds, a ward for surgical patients, a doubling in its capacity for cardiothoracic surgery with a new theatre and critical care beds for that purpose, a new catheter laboratory and a dramatic reduction in diagnostic waiting times for cardiac patients and that more than 90 per cent. of patients now receive accident and emergency care within the world standard of four hours. He talks about the national picture, which is represented there, but we have 67,500 more nurses, 14,000 more doctors, the biggest building programme in the history of the NHS, a 10 per cent. cut in premature deaths from cancer, and a 23 per cent. cut in premature deaths from cardiac heart disease. All that would be ruined if that lot ever got into power again.
§ Mr. Dennis Turner (Wolverhampton, South-East) (Lab/Co-op)The information that we have just heard regarding north Staffordshire is very good news for the people of that area and for the people of Wolverhampton, because North Staffordshire hospital is very close to my constituency and the whole of Wolverhampton. Irrespective of the Opposition's carping, I congratulate our Government on that investment. May I add that we have also had major investment in Wolverhampton? We have a state-of-the-art, 21st-century heart and lung unit ready to be opened as I speak. I want the Secretary of State to assure me that it will operate to full capacity, when we have the official opening.
§ Dr. ReidI can confirm that to my hon. Friend. Indeed, I think from memory that there is a new cardiac 136 centre at Wolverhampton, but of course there will be more. The project in the North Staffordshire hospital, which the hon. Member for South Suffolk (Mr. Yeo) forgot to mention, involves another £350 million to develop a new acute hospital on the site of the city's general hospital and a new community hospital in north Stoke. All that, of course, is representative of the biggest building programme in the history of the NHS. When the hon. Gentleman and his colleagues left office, more than half the buildings in the NHS were older than the NHS. If the Government, by grace of the electorate, survive another term, by the end of it, almost half the buildings in the NHS will have been built by this Labour Government—something to be proud of.
§ Mr. John Redwood (Wokingham) (Con)How much extra money could North Staffordshire hospital get for its health service if it had foundation status; and what would be the extra costs of the bureaucracy and corporate governance of a foundation hospital?
§ Dr. ReidThe right hon. Gentleman misunderstands foundation status. Such hospitals will not get any extra money. What they will get is greater freedom to deploy their money without constantly having to obtain ratification and permission from Ministers and bureaucrats in Whitehall.