§ Mr. SpellerTo ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will place in the Library a copy of his letter, dated 4 December 1990, and that of his Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Baroness Hooper, dated 14 January 1991, both addressed to the hon. Member for Devon, North, indicating the deferral of the application for establishing a North Devon health care trust; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mrs. Virginia Bottomley[pursuant to the reply, 22 January 1991, c. 161]: My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State has now decided to approve the application from Northern Devon Healthcare, formerly known as North Devon Healthcare, to be an NHS trust. The criteria adopted in considering trust applications were previously listed on 4 December 1989 at columns 77–82. They included:
that the establishment of a trust will give clear benefits and improved quality of service to patients;295Wthat management has the skills and capacity—including strong, effective leadership, sufficient financial and personnel management expertise and adequate information systems—to run the unit effectively;that senior professional staff, especially consultants, are involved in the management of the unit.In the case of the Northern Devon Healthcare Trust my right hon. Friend agreed, in response to a request from the sponsors, to defer the establishment of the trust at the time he made his decision to approve 56 NHS trusts.
My right hon. Friend has now decided, after careful thought and after having taken into account comments made during the consultation, to approve this application for trust status. The management team has now established itself and obtained the involvement of senior professional staff. The unit can now take advantage of NHS trust status.