§ Mr. Ashleyasked the Secretary of State for Social Services (1) if he will instruct district general managers to report directly to him if they have either three red alerts in any period of three months or have any red alert lasting more than 10 days or have two consecutive red alerts with an interval of less than one month between them; and if he will make a statement;
(2) if he will instruct the West Midlands regional health authority to inquire into the reasons for the North Staffordshire infirmary to be on red alert for the second time in the current winter and for this red alert to have occurred so soon after the previous one; if he will instruct them to assess how typical this hospital is in this respect 86W and to consider what steps should be taken to avoid red alerts occurring in the future barring exceptional circumstances;
(3) if he will instruct regional health authorities to provide him with information regarding the number of occasions on which hospitals in their region were Oil red alert and the number of days for which the red alert lasted; and if he will instruct them to identify those hospitals which have frequent and long-lasting red alerts and to explore the reasons for this happening;
(4) if he will set up a departmental working parly to investigate (a) the most common reasons for hospitals to be on red alert and (b) the consequences for patients on the various waiting lists.
§ Mr. HayhoeI have no plans to instruct regional or district health authorities or their general managers to make inquiries about or report details of red alerts to me. As my hon. Friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State said in his reply to the right hon. Member on 11 December 1985 at columns 686–87, it is the responsibility of health authorities to manage and supervise hospital and specialist services to meet local need. I have no plans to set up a departmental working party to investigate the specific causes and consequences of red alerts.