§ Mr. Alfred Morrisasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will make an official visit to Manchester to discuss with doctors, hospital administrators and staffs, and local public representatives, his decision to impose a three-district organisation on the Manchester Area Health Authority; and if he will now make a further statement.
§ Sir K. JosephNo. This decision, which I have carefully reconsidered and reaffirmed, has been explained in recent correspondence with those most concerned, including the hon. Member.
§ Mr. Alfred Morrisasked the Secretary of State for Social Services whether, in making his decision to impose three-district organisation on the Manchester Area Health Authority, thus placing Wythenshawe and Withington hospitals in the same district, he took into account the previous decision to separate the management of these two hospitals on grounds of managerial efficiency and improving the hospital service for the Wythenshawe community; if he will now review his decision in the light of experience; and if he will make a statement.
§ Sir K. JosephThe hospitals in Withington, Wythenshawe and North 499W Cheshire were regrouped in 1968, primarily to facilitate the establishment of the University Hospital of South Manchester, and I understand that the separation of the Withington and Wythenshawe Hospitals was opposed locally at the time.
This background was taken into general account but it was largely irrelevant to the quite different problem, five years later, of establishing a new organisation of health districts for the wider purpose of planning and operating an integrated health service for the population of the metropolitan district of Manchester.
As to the latter part of his Question, I would refer the hon. Member to my reply to him today on a related Question.