§ Mr. Wilkinsasked the Minister of Health whether he is aware that a new general hospital, to be sited in South Bristol, was foreshadowed in A Hospital Plan for England and Wales, Command Paper No. 1604, and that his predecessor said it would be commenced about 1965–66 with the provision of two maternity wards, comprising 34 beds; whether the recent statement by the South-West Regional Hospital Board announcing the deferring of the building of a new hospital in South Bristol was issued with his authority; and what are his reasons for not implementing the undertaking given by his predecessor.
§ Mr. BarberCmnd. 1604 listed the first phase of a new hospital in South Bristol among major schemes expected to start between 1966–67 and 1970–71. I am not aware of any undertaking that it would start in 1965–66, and I understand that the South Western Regional Hospital Board has made no statement about the scheme except to confirm that it is not among the schemes listed in the latest revision of the plan as expected to start in the years 1964–65 to 1968–69. Priority is being given in the next five years to the building of a maternity unit22W at Frenchay Hospital, new operating theatres at Southmead Hospital, new accident and emergency and out-patient departments at Bristol Royal Infirmary, a new maternity unit and a Regional Radio-therapy Centre on the Teaching Hospital site.