HL Deb 08 July 1982 vol 432 cc898-9

3.22 p.m.

Baroness Lane-Fox

My 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 aware that the delivery of mail to St. Thomas' Hospital was recently held up for 10 days and what action they propose to take about it.

Lord Trefgarne

My Lords, I understand that arising from the health service dispute, there has recently been some delay in getting mail to St. Thomas' Hospital. It is for the Post Office and the institution concerned to take the necessary steps to resolve difficulties of the sort being experienced at St. Thomas' Hosptial. The Post Office is treating this as a matter of urgency and has already offered the hospital alternative arrangements to get its mail.

Baroness Lane-Fox

My Lords, would my noble friend agree that as letters delayed by this despicable means add quite unacceptable dangers and anxieties for patients and cause unnecessary problems for overworked doctors, all effective steps really must be taken to prevent this from happening again?

Lord Trefgarne

My Lords, I absolutely agree that it is most deplorable that this obstruction has occurred. It does, if I may say so, give the lie to the union assertion that you can conduct industrial action in the health service without affecting patient care.

Lord Molloy

My Lords, may I ask the Minister to give full support to trade union leaders like Mr. Albert Spanswick of COHSE, who has gone out of his way to condemn absolutely this sort of behaviour by members of his and other unions? Is the noble Lord aware that what the Government should be doing is not trying to fight those who are completely raping the agreements of their own union—but are giving them support in this way—by indicating that all the trade unions involved are behaving in an irresponsible manner, when the fact is that they themselves have condemned wholeheartedly this form of repugnant behaviour?

Lord Trefgarne

It is a pity, my Lords, if that is the view of the trade union leaders, that they do not do more to control the actions of those whose actions they say they deplore.

Lord Harris of Greenwich

My Lords, is the Minister aware that this is by no means an isolated case; that there is a large mental hospital in the Thames Valley where exactly the same problem is arising? Does he accept that there are some wider implications, so far as this question is concerned, about the need to safeguard the delivery of the Royal Mail, when the position is that the safety of the lives of many patients is clearly involved?

Lord Trefgarne

My Lords, I agree, as I said earlier, that it is deplorable that this obstruction to the mail should take place. The duty of the Post Office in this matter is to provide its service where reasonably practicable—I understand that is the wording of the Act in question—and I think that has been construed so far as not forcing their way through picket lines.