§ Commander Purseyasked the Minister of Health (1) if he will state the percentage of births in hospitals and the average stay of patients after childbirth in hospitals, during the past year, in England and Wales, and in Hull, respectively; and what steps are being taken by the Leeds Regional Hospital Board to improve immediately the unsatisfactory maternity bed position in Hull;
(2) why, in the last 11 years, the Leeds Regional Hospital Board has done nothing to replace the missing block at the Hedon Road Maternity Hospital, Hull, destroyed by bombing in the late war; how many beds have to be replaced as a result; and what steps he intends to take immediately to improve the shortage of maternity beds in Hull.
(3) if he will state the number of births in Hull and the number of maternity beds, in the years 1939 and 1948 and last year, and the number and percentage of births in maternity beds in each of these years.
§ Mr. R. ThompsonStatistics are not available in the form requested but in 1949 6,338 confinements notified to the Medical Officer of Health took place in the administrative area of Kingston-upon-Hull. Of these 2,230 (35.2 per cent.) occurred in institutions, 252 of them in private nursing homes. The corresponding figures for 1958 were 5,540, 2,839 (51.2 per cent.) and 215, and the corresponding percentage for England and Wales in 1958 was 63.2 per cent. The number of births to Hull residents which were registered in 1939 was 5,557 but it is not known how many of these took place in institutions.
On 31st December, 1949 there were 74 beds in National Health Service hospitals in Hull allocated to maternity 57W services; in addition 10 further beds designated under section 5 of the National Health Service Act, 1946 were used mainly for maternity cases. This designation has since been withdrawn and 84 beds are now devoted entirely to maternity work. In 1958 the average length of stay in these beds was 9.31 days, compared with a national average of 10.91 days.
Work is now in progress on the extension to the Hedon Road Maternity Hospital referred to in the Answer given to the hon. and gallant Member on 26th March. Previously other claims on the limited resources available for hospital building, and the need to ensure that the development of maternity services fitted in with plans for hospital development in Hull generally, have delayed the making good of the deficiency of maternity accommodation in the City. I understand that accommodation for some 16 patients was lost at the Hedon Road Maternity Hospital because of bombing.
§ Commander Purseyasked the Minister of Health (1) under what conditions the Townend Maternity Home, Hull, is still being run as a private nursing home, under the National Health Scheme, for a limited number of doctors and specially privileged patients; and when the Leeds Regional Hospital Board intends to integrate this home with the Hedon Road Maternity Hospital into the National Health Scheme in Hull, for the use of all doctors and patients of all social classes;
(2) if he will state the priorities adopted by the Leeds Regional Hospital Board and the Hull Hospital Management Committee for the entry of maternity cases into the Hedon Road Maternity Hospital and the Townend Maternity Home, Hull; and why medical, sociological and emergency maternity cases from slum clearance house are not admitted to the Townend Maternity Home.
§ Mr. R. ThompsonThe Townend Maternity Hospital already vests in the Minister and is operated as part of the National Health Service. The beds there have been approved as amenity beds under Section 4 of the National Health Service Act, 1946, and are available for use by all local general practitioners. Priority for admission both to this Hospital and to the Hedon Road58W Maternity Hospital is accorded to patients in the following categories:
First confinements receive priority after the needs of patients in the above categories have been met. The Hedon Road Maternity Hospital is better equipped to deal with patients requiring special medical and nursing care.
- (i) those with obstetric abnormalities;
- (ii) fifth and subsequent confinements;
- (iii) those in urgent need of hospital confinement on social grounds.
§ Commander Purseyasked the Minister of Health if he will state the date on which a surgical block was closed at the Sutton Annexe Hospital, Hull; what are the reasons for this closure; what further delays this closure will cause in operations; and what steps the Leeds Regional Hospital Board is taking forthwith to re-open this block and reduce the increasingly lengthy delays of operations for numerous patients.
§ Mr. R. ThompsonOne surgical ward was closed on 28th March because of shortage of nursing staff, which the hospital authorities are doing all they can to make good. Meanwhile patients are being diverted as far as possible to other accommodation. Any increase in waiting time will depend on the circumstances of each particular case and on the speed with which the ward at Sutton can be re-opened.
§ Commander Purseyasked the Minister of Health if he will state the total amount of money spent by the Leeds Regional Hospital Board on the new all purpose laundry at the Western General Hospital, Hull, the period this laundry has been in use, and the date by which it is to be demolished; and what part of the equipment is to be used in the next new combined hospitals laundry.
§ Mr. R. ThompsonImprovements recently made at the laundry of the Western General Hospital are estimated to cost about £15,500. About £13,500 of this represents equipment suitable for transfer to the proposed new Group Laundry. The improved laundry has been in full operation for about a month and is likely to continue in operation for a further twelve to eighteen months.
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§ Commander Purseyasked the Minister of Health if he will state the number of births which took place in Hull during last year, in slum clearance houses with no indoor sanitation or water supply; and why the Leeds Regional Hospital Board did not arrange for cases of the worst conditions to be sent to maternity hospitals elsewhere in the region, outside Hull.
§ Mr. R. ThompsonStatistics relating births to housing conditions are not available but I cannot accept the implication that Hull mothers in urgent need of hospital confinement were unable to secure admission to hospital.
§ Commander Purseyasked the Minister of Health if he will state the total cost of the Hedon Road Maternity Hospital and the Townend Maternity Home, Hull, respectively, last year, and the number of births and the average cost per patient in each place.
§ Mr. R. ThompsonThe latest available information is as follows. The Townend Maternity Home is costed as one unit with the Hull Hospital for Women.
— Hedon Road Maternity Hospital Townend Maternity Hospital and Hull Hospital for Women Number of births in 1958 2,339 286 Total cost in 1957–58 £99,266 £40,505 Average cost per case 1957–58 £35 19 2 £38 14 2