§ Mr. ViggersTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence for what reason the Royal Hospital Haslar was not expanded to the number of beds specified in Defence Cost Study 15. [80569]
§ Mr. Doug HendersonThe Royal Hospital Haslar was not expanded to the number of beds specified in Defence Cost Study 15 because activity levels in the Hospital have not warranted such an expansion and additional staff have not been available to increase local capacity and therefore throughput. In addition, NHS policy since the mid 1990s has increasingly been to promote large acute hospitals which can contain a critical mass of speciality and sub-speciality activity. The Royal Hospital Haslar falls outside this recommended scale.