HC Deb 30 November 1993 vol 233 cc459-60W
Ms Primarolo

To ask the Secretary of State for Health when she will announce her final plans for the restructuring of the NHS in London.

Mr. Corbyn

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans she has for the future pattern of acute health care in London; and what financial arrangements have been made for the closure of hospitals in London in 1994–95.

Dr. Mawhinney

The Government's strategy for the future of London's acute health services is set out clearly in "Making London Better". Proposals for a number of specific changes to the pattern of services will be put forward shortly and, where appropriate, will be subject to formal consultation. As indicated in "Making London Better", resources will be available to ensure that any changes take place in an orderly fashion and no proposal will be agreed unless it offers a sound basis for delivering a high quality and cost-effective service to patients.

Mr. Corbyn

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what consideration has been given to the establishment of a regional health authority for the Greater London area.

Dr. Mawhinney

The Department is currently consulting on proposals to determine new national health service regions and establish new regional health authorities. Copies of the consultation document "Managing the New NHS" have been sent to all Members of Parliament and are available in the Library. In the configuration of regions shown in the document, the Greater London area is divided between the proposed North Thames and South Thames regions. This configuration was chosen after considering a range of options, including options involving the establishment of a single regional health authority for the Greater London area, because it most closely met the criteria of minimising disruption to the work of the national health service; maintaining a spread of medical schools across the regions; ensuring that individual regions would be administratively manageable; and respecting natural lines of communication such as road and rail links.

Mr. Corbyn

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what progress has been made on improving primary health care in London.

Dr. Mawhinney

In "Making London Better", the Government gave a commitment to invest £170 million on capital projects over six years. £40 million was made available in 1993–94 and has been used to fund primary health care development plans in each of the 12 family health services authorities within the London initiative zone (LIZ). It is expected that the extra LIZ moneys will fund over a hundred capital schemes this year. In addition, £7.5 million was made available over three years to fund voluntary sector projects to help prevent admission to hospital or facilitate early discharge. Thirty-one voluntary sector projects have already been approved as part of this initiative at a cost of £5 million.