§ Mr. Cartwrightasked the Secretary of State for Defence what is the estimated revenue cost to his Department of the Queen Elizabeth Military Hospital, Woolwich, when fully operational, assuming (a) that the entire hospital is retained for Army use and (b) that 120 beds are made 49W available to the area health authority; and how these figures compare with the revenue costs of the establishments which will be replaced by the Queen Elizabeth Military Hospital.
§ Mr. Robert C. BrownAt current prices it is estimated that the annual running costs of the Queen Elizabeth Military Hospital, if used for military patients only, will be of the order of £4.5 million representing a saving of some £2.5 million a year over the costs of running the existing hospital. If 120 beds are made available to the area health authority the payment from National Health Service funds to Defence Votes would need to be negotiated.
§ Mr. Cartwrightasked the Secretary of State for Defence what is the latest estimated cost of building and equipping the Queen Elizabeth Military Hospital, Woolwich; and by how much it is estimated that this would have been reduced by the omission of the 120 beds now being offered for civilian use.
§ Mr. Robert C. BrownThe latest estimated cost of building and equipping the hospital, including the associated staff accommodation and training school, is £14 million. The hypothetical cost of building a hospital with 120 fewer beds over the same time frame as the present project could not be established without disproportionate effort.
§ Mr. Cartwrightasked the Secretary of State for Defence how many beds are to be provided at the Queen Elizabeth Military Hospital. Woolwich; why it was decided to build a new military hospital of this size; and why it has now been found to be larger than is required to meet the prospective needs of the Army.
§ Mr. Robert C. Brown464 beds are to be provided at the Queen Elizabeth Military Hospital. The size of the hospital was decided in the light of the expected military requirement when the project was authorised several years ago as a replacement for the Queen Alexandra Military Hospital, Millbank, and the two military hospitals in Woolwich. More recently the military requirement has reduced, and it has, therefore, been decided that a Service psychiatric unit should be included in the new hospital in order to permit the50W early closure of the Royal Victoria Hospital at Netley.
It is normal policy that military hospitals should make a significant proportion of beds available to NHS patients, when this can be done without detriment to the military requirement, as is now the case at Woolwich. It is the use of this element which is the subject of study by the Ministry of Defence, the Department of Health and Social Security and the health authorities concerned.