§ Mr. Ashleyasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will list the hospitals and their district health authorities which have already been on red alert for no further admissions other than emergencies at least once in the current winter; and how many red alerts in how many hospitals there were last winter.
§ Mr. Whitney[pursuant to his reply, 9 December 1985, c. 494]The information requested is not collected centrally. It is the responsibility of health authorities to manage and supervise hospital and specialist services to meet local need. Arrangements for admissions to National Health Service hospitals are planned to take into account circumstances which would significantly affect demand. We would expect extremes of weather conditions, epidemics, major accidents and natural disasters to be amongst the factors taken into account. It may occasionally be necessary to restrict routine admissions for a short period due to such things as unseasonably severe weather.