§ Mr. George Gardinerasked the Secretary of State for Social Services (1) whether she will consider reversing the decision of the South-West Thames Regional Hospital Authority again to postpone the building of a new general hospital at Redhill to serve East Surrey;
(2) what is the purpose and estimated cost of the new computer centre proposed by the South-West Thames Regional Hospital Authority.
§ Dr. OwenThe provisional estimated cost of providing a computer centre, which will be used for accounting, the analysis of medical information and health statistics throughout the South-West Thames Region, is £1£2 million. I have no reason to believe that the priority chosen by the South-West Thames Regional Health Authority for its computer project which will benefit the whole region is the wrong priority.
375WThe proposed hospital at Redhill is in any case at an early planning stage and no building could be started within the next two years, so that this year capital allocation for the computer project could not be used at Redhill.