§ Mr. Kilfedderasked the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland whether he has made an estimate of the revenue consequences of the £6.77 million new developments at the Mater hospital; and whether additional funds are to be made available to the Eastern health board to cover the extra expenditure, or if this is to be met from the board's existing resources.
§ Mr. John PattenIt is for the Eastern Health and Social Services Board to estimate any revenue consequences and to meet these from funds made available to it. If unable to do so, the board may make representations, in due course, to the Department for assistance.
§ Mr. Kilfedderasked the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland whether he will set out in the Official Report the terms of the deed of arrangement between the Government and the trustees of the Mater hospital, together with any subsequent amendments.
§ Mr. John PattenThe deed of arrangement is a lengthy document I have therefore arranged for a copy to be placed in the Library. The deed will be amended shortly 211W to take account of the agreement reached in 1977 between the Department and the hospital trustees to share the capital costs of reconstruction.
§ Mr. Kilfedderasked the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what is the time scale for the new developments costing £6.77 million to be carried out at the Mater hospital; and whether the existing total of beds is to be increased as a consequence.
§ Mr. John PattenThe development includes reconstruction of the existing building and the building of a new block on an adjoining site. Some of the reconstruction is complete; the rest is in hand. Work on the new block will begin in the latter part of 1983 and be completed early in 1987. There will be no increase in the number of beds.
§ Mr. Kilfedderasked the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland whether he has any plans for the updating of facilities or new developments at Ards and Bangor hospitals to match the proposals approved for the Mater hospital.
§ Mr. John PattenThe Eastern Health and Social Services Board has no plans at present to update the facilities at the Bangor and the Ards hospitals.
The Mater, Ards and Bangor hospitals all provide acute services, but only the Mater is a teaching hospital. Teaching hospitals have higher levels of staffing than non-teaching hospitals.
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§ Mr. Kilfedderasked the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will take steps to enable the medical staffs of Ards and Bangor hospitals to be supported in terms of personnel, equipment and supplies in like manner to the support provided at the Mater hospital.
§ Mr. John PattenPersonnel, equipment and supplies are provided in support of medical staff according to the functions of the hospital. I understand that the Ards and Bangor hospitals are provided with support services by the Eastern Board in accordance with their particular functions.
§ Mr. Kilfedderasked the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what were the recurrent costs of the Ards, Bangor and Mater hospitals, respectively, for each year since the reorganisation of local government.
§ Mr. John PattenThe Eastern Health and Social Services Board accounts show that since 1 October 1973 the recurrent costs at the three hospitals have been: —
£ million Year Ards Bangor Mater 31 Oct 1973–31 March 1974 0.6 0.2 0.6 1974–75 1.8 0.4 1.6 1975–76 2.1 0.6 2.1 1976–77 2.7 0.7 2.6 1977–78 2.9 0.8 2.9 1978–79 3.2 0.8 3.2 1979–80 4.1 1.0 4.2 1980–81 5.1 1.3 5.8