§ 2.36 p.m.
§ LORD CROOKMy Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.
§ [The Question was as follows:
§ To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they are yet in a position to make a statement as to the future of Queen Mary's Hospital, Carshalton, arising from the considerations discussed in the debate in this House on February 12, 1959.]
THE EARL OF ONSLOWMy Lords the House will remember that in replying to the debate to which the noble Lord refers I indicated that before coming to any conclusions in this matter my right honourable and learned friend the Minister of Health wished to consider the views then expressed by your Lordships. This he has done, and also made further inquiries; and, furthermore, he has personally visited both Queen Mary's Hospital and the Fountain Hospital, whose future is equally affected. As a result he has now put before the responsible hospital authorities—that is, the South-West Metropolitan Regional Hospital Board and the two Hospital Management Committees—a new proposal for their consideration. This 321 proposal is that there should be established at Queen Mary's Hospital a comprehensive children's hospital centre of a new and pioneer nature. This would provide treatment for both physically and mentally sick children in one hospital, and would represent an important development in accordance with modern trends towards the integration of psychiatry and pædiatric medicine.
My right honourable and learned friend the Minister of Health has commended this proposal to the South-West Metropolitan Regional Hospital Board and the Hospital Management Committees of the two hospitals as an imaginative plan which would combine three desirable objects: the provision of, first, a unique children's hospital centre; second, of urgently needed improved and up-to-date accommodation for the children of the Fountain Hospital; and, thirdly, of new opportunities in training and career prospects for the nursing staffs of both hospitals. He hopes to receive the views of the Regional Board and the two Hospital Management Committees on this proposal shortly.
§ LORD CROOKMy Lords, is the noble Earl aware that the statement he has made will give great satisfaction to a considerable number of Members of your Lordships' House and to very large numbers of other people—tens of thousands, indeed—once they read this news in the papers, in view of their desire to see this hospital kept in its present good condition and able to deal with both long-term and acute cases, and, as the noble Earl has indicated, now capable of extending its activities even further?
THE EARL OF ONSLOWMy Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord for the reception he has given to my statement. It is pleasant to be able to say for this Department something that gives general satisfaction, and I hope we shall be in the same happy mood at the end of the Committee stage of the Mental Health Bill.