NATIONAL HEALTH SERVICE (HOSPITAL BOARDS) BILL (Hansard, 19 March 1964)

§ LORD ABERDARE
My Lords, this Bill also is a Private Member's Bill which was piloted through another place by my right honourable friend the Member for Barry. It is quite a simple Bill and it has two objects. The first is to change the title of the "Welsh Regional Hospital Board" simply to "Welsh Hospital Board"; and because in Wales we are not selfish, it is also to allow other Regional Hospital Boards to do likewise if an appropriate order is made by the Minister.
The present position under Section 11(1) of the National Health Service Act, 1946, requires all Boards to be called "Regional Hospital Board". In the case of Wales it is not consistent, I feel, with the status of the Principality to be designated "Regional". It never has been known as a region and is certainly not entitled "Regional" in any 968 other connection—for example, the Welsh Tourist Board, Welsh Gas Board, South Wales Electricity Board and South-Western Division of the Coal Board. There is nothing regional in those titles. Clause 1(3), therefore, is to change the name from "Welsh Regional Hospital Board" to "Welsh Hospital Board".
At the same time, there may be others among the fourteen remaining Regional Hospital Boards where to drop the word "Regional" might have advantages and would certainly result in the title being less cumbersome. To take one particular case, the title "North-West Metropolitan Regional Hospital Board" is very cumbersome; "North-West Metropolitan Hospital Board" would be much more satisfactory. Clause 1(1) enables the Minister to make an appropriate order to this effect. I beg to move that the Bill be read a second time.

§ BARONESS SUMMERSKILL
My Lords, if I show a special interest in the object of this little Bill it is no doubt attributable to the fact that I have a 50 per cent. interest because I am married to a Welshman.

SEVERAL NOBLE LORDS
Hear, hear!

§ BARONESS SUMMERSKILL
I think the Welsh are a very patient people because, as the noble Lord has said, they have since 1946, since the introduction of the National Health Service Act, felt understandably aggrieved because they have been categorised simply as an administrative region. Of course the original purpose was to distinguish the administrative regions in the National Health Service, not as the noble Lord has mentioned, from other boards, but from various other health boards which might exist or come into being. Therefore, the word "regional", which was used for the other areas in the country, was used by the officials at the time; I agree that a little more imagination might have been exercised.
Wales has her own national culture and her own language. We have heard from the noble Lord, Lord Brecon, that 60 per cent. of Welsh people speak the Welsh language to-day, and Wales has a Minister concerned with her own 969 affairs. The description "Regional" suggests that she is of no more historical or ethnical significance than a metropolitan area. Because I belong to a metropolitan area, I do not suggest I can equate my particular North-East area with the nation of Wales with its wonderful culture. Whoever was responsible for devising this title was, I think, a little more concerned for a tidy unity, which might be better in the filing system than for the national pride of Wales.
Of course, the Bill, as the noble Lord has mentioned, also provides that the other Regional Hospital Boards can have the opportunity to discard the word "Regional" from their title, but this is only permissive, whereas in the first clause the change is mandatory. This no doubt will stimulate the imaginations of many members of those Boards. But, for the time being, I think that we should be content to remove a misnomer from which Wales has suffered for too long.
When we introduce Bills of this kind noble Lords and Members of the other place always wonder if a speaker can quote a precedent. Is there a precedent for this? I can only say that on my side of the House there is a most important precedent. The Labour Party decided to divide the whole country into administrative regions, but we recognised Welsh nationhood and we described the Welsh area as the Welsh Council of Labour. I feel the noble Lord did not know that; he looks quite surprised to hear this important precedent. So I hope that nobody will object to this little Bill, which I feel is rather overdue, and on behalf of my noble friends I say that we are only too ready to accept it.

§ LORD TAYLOR
My Lords, my interest in this small but useful Bill is entirely "non-tribal". It is worth remembering, I think, that the original National Health Service Bill which included the provision for the Welsh Regional Hospital Board was the work of a Welshman, Mr. Aneurin Bevan, but he apparently overlooked this slight error. I personally think it is a very good thing to get rid of the word "Regional" in the name of the Welsh Hospital Board, and, indeed, in every other case. These Hos- 970 pital Boards have extremely cumbersome names. There is a good deal of importance in giving an organisation a good name, both metaphorically and actually. I have spent a good deal of my time selecting names for public houses, in the New Town of Harlow for example. We decided we should go for something new, and we went for names of butterflies and moths; and your Lordships will he surprised how well they trip off the tongue; the Painted Lady, the Essex Skipper—

§ BARONESS SUMMERSKILL
The Cabbage White.

§ LORD TAYLOR
We have no Cabbage White, but we have a Garden Tiger and a Small Copper. The number of appropriate butterfly and moth names is terrific. I am not suggesting for one moment that we should call Hospital Boards by similar names, but I get a little sad when I see hospitals which designate their wards by numbers rather than by calling them all by nice, historic names—Charity, Florence, Job, Lydia, Dorcas, Ann, William, Henry and Luke Ward—the last block at St. Thomas's. It was very pleasant because we could refer to the ward sister as Sister Charity or Sister Florence; but Sister Ward 10 does not sound so good.
These Hospital Boards have proved an administrative success, but they cannot be said to have awakened any great emotional enthusiasm. They are a convenience, whereas I think they ought to inspire loyalty and healthy competition between the regions. I attribute this largely to the extremely unimaginative names they have been given. I have long hoped we should see the end of those names, and now at last we have a convenient piece of machinery for getting rid of them.
It is interesting that when the Ministry decided a few years ago to have a new hospital region it invented or used an old but familiar and pleasant name, Wessex. But the four Boards which cover London and the surrounding counties are called the North-West Metropolitan Regional Hospital Board, the North-East Metropolitan Regional Hospital Board, the South-East Metropolitan Regional Hospital Board, and the Smith-West Metropolitan Regional Hospital Board. Anything more cumbersome and stupid it would be hard to 971 devise, except that they are fairly accurately descriptive of the areas covered, because for technical reasons London and the surrounding country is divided into four parts for hospital administrative purposes.
In the case of the other regions they are, with one or two exceptions, known by the name of the main town in the region. I have tried to think of rather better names to substitute for these main town names. For Newcastle I should like to see "Tyneland Hospital Board"; for Leeds, the "Ridings Hospital Board", for Sheffield, the "Shires Hospital Board"; for the East Anglian Regional Hospital Board the "Fenlands Hospital Board". And for London I should like to see for the North-West Metropolitan Regional Hospital Board the "Chiltern Hospital Board", for the North-East Metropolitan Region the "Anglian Hospital Board", for the South-East the "Southlands", and for the South-West the "Thames" or "Weald Hospital Board". For Oxford, I see no reason to change the name; it is perfectly reasonable; it is a very small region. For the South-Western I should like the "Severn" or the "Westland Hospital Board" and so one could go on. These are much better, shorter names. The names of these Boards are written an enormous number of times in the course of administration, and they are by no means clear. If we can use this little Bill as a means for stimulating the institutions of our National Health Service, it will be very useful indeed.

§ THE JOINT PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARY, MINISTRY or HEALTH (LORD NEWTON)
My Lords, I cannot claim any Welsh connection. Nevertheless, I am glad that your Lordships have given the welcome which you have to my noble friend's Bill, and I am glad to know that if your Lordships pass it it will give pleasure in the Principality. My noble friend has explained very clearly what the object of the Bill is. The noble Baroness and the noble Lord, Lord Taylor, referred to the unimaginative names of most of the Boards as we have them to-day.
The noble Lord, Lord Taylor, pointed out that the Act of 1946, and the Order made under the Act describing the titles 972 of the Board, was the responsibility of a Welshman. So it was. But it was also a responsibility not of this Government nor of my Party but of the Labour Party. It seems to me that is a very fair point to make. I would add this: there was one name of a Board which the noble Lord, Lord Taylor, did praise, and that was the Wessex Regional Hospital Board. The Government I support was in fact responsible for that charming name. I am grateful to the noble Lord for paying such an unintended compliment to the literary skill of the Government.
If your Lordships pass this measure, as I hope you will, my right honourable friend proposes to consult with the Boards about their titles under two headings, so to speak: he will consult with them as to whether or not they wish to take up the option which is provided of dropping the word "Regional", and also about the descriptive titles—that is to say, whether the North-West Metropolitan Regional Hospital Board is happy about continuing to be called the North-West Metropolitan Regional Hospital Board.
Perhaps I should explain that although, because of the wording of the 1946 Act, the words "Regional Hospital Board" cannot be changed without legislation, which is why my noble friend has rightly presented this Bill to-day, there is already power under Section 11 (1) of the Act to vary the descriptive titles by order. So the way is open, if it seems advisable to change these names after consultation with the Boards. I hope your Lordships will therefore give this Bill a Second Reading.

§ LORD ABERDARE
My Lords, I am very grateful to the noble Baroness and the noble Lord, Lord Taylor, for the warmth of their support. It is nice to know the noble Baroness gave me 100 per cent. support although she is only 50 per cent. prejudiced—and the noble Lord, Lord Taylor, is not prejudiced at all. I would also thank my noble friend Lord Newton for giving the support of Her Majesty's Government to this Bill.