§ Mr. SpearingTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what arrangements he has made within his Department, or by co-ordination between relevant authorities, for logging, analysing and indexing monthly, or annually, the number of cases when admission to hospital of seriously ill people is delayed by failure within given times to local suitable centres of treatment, length of journey, or combination of both. [7374]
§ Mr. HoramHealth authorities and national health service trusts should work together to plan and ensure that facilities are adequate to meet demand. In some areas emergency beds services will play a co-ordinating role in matching patients to beds. We would expect any incident where there is an unnecessary delay in the admission of a seriously ill patient to be thoroughly investigated by local management.