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Mr. Dennis Skinner (Bolsover): Does the Minister agree that his statement probably demonstrates more effectively than many just what makes this Government tick? They are prepared to play with the lives of millions of people throughout Britain by changing the whole system of dealing with blood in other parts of the country when advances in medical science mean that we need more blood. Why should anybody trust this Government to transfer blood from one part of the country to another, when they cannot even transfer water in the middle of November from one part of the country to another? As for this charter and this user group, God only knows what Tony Hancock would have done with that.
Mr. Dorrell: The hon. Gentleman obviously has to sort out his difficulties with his hon. Friend the Member for Peckham (Ms Harman) about the user group and the donors charter. But I did agree with one thing that he said--the changes that I have announced today show what makes this Government tick. To deliver high-quality service to donors and hospitals without waste and as efficiently as possible is what makes this Government tick, and I am very proud of it.
Mr. Barry Porter (Wirral, South): There was obviously great consternation on Merseyside about the proposals and, to begin with, some serious objections were raised by some clinical people. I was grateful for the very detailed and, indeed, interminable negotiations. As I understood it, we were given an assurance that, unless professional opinion was in favour of the proposals, they would not go forward. Has that support been received?
Mr. Dorrell: That is precisely why I asked the medical director of the National Blood Authority to engage in face-to-face discussions with representatives of clinical opinion on Merseyside. As a result, people maintained their points of view, but no clinical questions raised were left unresolved. In such circumstances, I believe that, if there is the opportunity to improve services to both donors and patients, and at the same time release £10 million for services available elsewhere in the health service, it is my task as Secretary of State to take that opportunity.
Ms Angela Eagle (Wallasey): But having a discussion with the director of medical services, who then takes a report to John Adey, the head of the NBA, does not signify the consent of clinical experts on Merseyside. I can tell the Secretary of State that there is no consent among clinical experts on Merseyside for this change. When my constituents in the Wirral and the population of the rest of Merseyside consider the results of this so-called consultation, they will realise that all that the right hon. Gentleman has done is go ahead with exactly what was proposed at the beginning, except for switching one of the most badly affected centres from Brentwood and Ongar to Cambridge--
Madam Speaker: Order. I have not yet heard a question from the hon. Lady. This is Question Time, so I must have a question to which the Minister can respond.
Ms Eagle: I began by asking the Minister whether he agreed that sending the medical director along to talk to clinical experts--this is a very important point in Merseyside--signalled that those experts agreed with the proposals. I can tell him that those experts do not agree.
Mr. Dorrell: What the medical director found when she talked to representatives of medical opinion on Merseyside, around Oxford, and, indeed, nationally--this is a national service--was that a number of clinicians had concerns about whether the blood service would be able to deliver the standards of service to which it was committing itself. It is because of that concern that I am setting up the national user group to monitor clinical standards, and to ensure that every NHS clinician who relies on the blood service has the assurance that it delivers the standards to which it commits itself. That is the assurance we can give. I believe that that resolves the clinical questions which arose during consultation.
Mr. Nigel Evans (Ribble Valley): People who live in rural areas such as Ribble Valley have to travel further to
give blood. Will my right hon. Friend give an assurance that the mobile units and the service they receive will not be reduced? A number of people in my constituency have blood belonging to rarer blood groups, and are therefore asked more often to give blood up at the Lancaster centre. Will my right hon. Friend give an assurance that they will be able to do so in future?
Mr. Dorrell: The answers to my hon. Friend's questions are yes, and yes. There will be no diminution of the local collection service. Indeed, in many parts of the country, it will be enhanced. All the existing blood centres will remain open, as both donor centres and blood banks.
Mr. Andrew Miller (Ellesmere Port and Neston): Does the Secretary of State agree that, the smaller the number of processing centres, the greater the risk of cross-infection of blood products? Does he agree, therefore, with clinicians in Liverpool who believe that the closure of the service there has not taken into account all the issues that should be taken into account in the public interest?
Mr. Dorrell: If the hon. Gentleman's point had not been taken into account, I would agree that we had not taken account of everything that we should have taken account of. We have taken that point into account, and that is why, although the capacity is being reduced, we are continuing to plan for excess capacity--a safety margin--in every part of the country to accommodate precisely the uncertainty to which the hon. Gentleman refers. We are reducing overcapacity to release money to maintain patient care elsewhere in the NHS.
The hon. Gentleman asks whether it is true that we have taken account of the effect on the blood service of unforeseen circumstances in individual blood centres. The answer is yes.
Mr. David Congdon (Croydon, North-East):
I welcome my right hon. Friend's statement and his determination to achieve value for money in such an essential service, thus releasing £10 million for additional patient care. What will the benefits be of the two additional blood centres, one of which will be in London?
Will he confirm that, despite the uncertainties that have been alleged by Opposition Members, the daily collection of blood is up by 6 per cent. on the 1993 figure?
Mr. Dorrell:
It is true that the daily collection of blood has been meeting requirements, and has been on an upward trend. The two new national blood service blood banks will be established in south Lincolnshire and in central London, so that every NHS hospital has the assurance that its own blood bank can be replenished within two hours. That is a standard to which the national blood service should work. In parts of the country, the service occasionally falls below that standard. The investment of extra resources in the two new blood banks will provide an assurance to every NHS hospital in England.
Mr. Peter Kilfoyle (Liverpool, Walton):
Many of us believed that the Secretary of State would come to the issue with an open mind, and are bitterly disappointed that he has failed to do so. Does he recall a meeting with an all-party delegation of Merseyside Members of Parliament last month, at which the director was present? Does he recall that what she averred about the clinicians' position
Mr. Dorrell:
After that meeting, I asked the medical director to talk to all the leading clinicians on Merseyside and in Oxford to resolve the clinical questions that arose during the consultation.
Mr. Dorrell:
The hon. Lady says that they did not. The fact is that the medical director met senior clinicians on Merseyside and in Oxford. She addressed and resolved the clinical questions. Of course individual citizens are entitled to their views. My responsibility is to deliver national health service medical services to the highest standard possible and as efficiently as possible. That is the obligation which this statement discharges.
Mr. Michael Fabricant (Mid-Staffordshire):
As a regular donor of A Rh-positive blood, I welcome this statement, which is more than any Opposition Member has done. [Interruption.] Opposition Members do not seem to give blood or, if they do, no one has mentioned it. Is my right hon. Friend aware that many people feel that there have been difficulties when they move home in terms of records not being transferred from the old area into the new one--a problem that I have experienced?
Will that problem be alleviated with a new national blood service?
Mr. Dorrell:
Yes, my hon. Friend is absolutely right. The existing structure of the blood service introduces unnecessary and anomalous divisions between different parts of the country. The establishment of a national computer system will resolve that problem, and my hon. Friend's records will be able to move freely around the country.
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