---

Regional Health Issues

8. Mr. Hinchliffe: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how often he meets the chairs of the NHS regional executive to discuss current regional health issues. [5617]

Mr. Horam: The Secretary of State meets regional chairmen regularly to discuss a wide range of regional and national issues.

Mr. Hinchliffe: Has the Minister raised with the chair of the Northern and Yorkshire regional health authority its failure to honour clear obligations given to Pinderfields hospital to compensate it for the loss of regional neuro-surgery provision to Leeds? The Minister knows full well that my constituents and those of my hon. Friend the Member for Normanton (Mr. O'Brien) were lied to and clearly misled during public consultation on this matter. He is directly responsible: what is he going to do about it?

Mr. Horam: The hon. Gentleman's health authority is over target and has ample resources. It received a further increase this year. The local health trust has a specialist eye unit and a skin graft unit, which are doing marvellous work. Wakefield is in very good shape.

Mr. Jacques Arnold: When my hon. Friend meets the chairman of South Thames health authority, will he pass on the congratulations of the people of north-west Kent on last week's decision to develop the private finance initiative for Darenth Park hospital at a cost of £102 million, which answers my constituents' dreams?

Mr. Horam: I am delighted that Gravesham and Dartford are in such harmony.

Ms Jowell: Will the Minister assure the House that, when he next meets the chairmen of the NHS regional executive, he will set a timetable for making good the Government's promise to patients that they can expect to be treated in a single-sex ward? Does he recall the Prime Minister's admission at the Dispatch Box two weeks ago that the Government had broken that promise to patients? Would he care to explain to the House why a report on the performance of NHS trusts on the patients charter standard on mixed-sex wards--which he promised in April would be published shortly--has still not seen the light of day? Is that report being suppressed because its findings confirm the inhumanity of mixed-sex wards, and offer further proof that Tory promises to patients are not worth the paper that they are written on?

Mr. Horam: I am surprised that the hon. Lady took such a long time to ask a question that had just been answered by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State. He has made plain the Government's commitment in the patients charter to move towards the elimination of mixed-sex wards. That is clearly in the public interest and in the interest of patients, and I am surprised that the hon. Lady thinks that we would renege on that commitment.

3 Dec 1996 : Column 787

St. Helier NHS Trust

9. Lady Olga Maitland: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what recent assessment he has made of health provision by St. Helier NHS trust. [5618]

Mr. Burns: The St. Helier NHS trust provides a comprehensive range of good quality services to more patients than ever before.

Lady Olga Maitland: I thank my hon. Friend for his kind words about the magnificent track record of the St. Helier trust. Is he aware that, despite the Government's commitment of £1.6 billion extra resources to the health service, my local health authority of Merton, Sutton and Wandsworth is deeply concerned about a shortfall of £4 million, of which £1 million affects St. Helier? Will my hon. Friend consider a bridging loan so that we can maintain the excellent services that we have always had?

Mr. Burns: I am very grateful to my hon. Friend. As she will know, as a result of the £1.6 billion secured by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State, Merton, Sutton and Wandsworth health authority has an increase in cash terms of £11.5 million, which is a real-terms increase of 1.64 per cent. I know that my hon. Friend has written to my hon. Friend the Minister for Health. I assure her that her letter will be examined carefully, although, obviously, I cannot anticipate the answer. However, she may be interested to know that, after the Budget, the director of finance at the St. Helier NHS trust said of the £1.6 billion extra:

"This is at the top end of my expectations. This means we will not have to make any cuts at all."

NHS Managers

11. Mr. McAvoy: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many managers there are in the national health service currently; how many there were in 1989; and if he will make a statement. [5620]

Mr. Malone: There were 26,700 managers in the NHS in 1995--the latest year for which figures are available. The figure includes 6,660 practice managers employed by general practitioners, and excludes managers who need to be qualified health care professionals to do their job. Directly comparable information is not available for 1989.

Mr. McAvoy: Is the Minister proud of the fact that the Government have cut the number of nurses by 50,000 and replaced them with 20,000 new senior managers? Does he accept that that simple fact reflects clearly the twisted priorities of the Government? Does he accept that those twisted priorities are the reason why more than 1 million people are waiting for treatment, dozens of trusts are on the verge of bankruptcy and ever more people are forced to sign up for private health insurance?

Mr. Malone: The Government are proud of the fact that there are 55,000 more nurses and 25,000 more doctors now than when we took office, and that we have cut waiting lists since implementing our reforms. In 1990, 200,000 people were waiting for more than 12 months, and that figure is now down to 15,000. Activity in the

3 Dec 1996 : Column 788

NHS is up by 33 per cent., whereas the total management figure, as a percentage of staff, is up by about 3 per cent. The NHS is built on those achievements, and the hon. Gentleman does no good by ignoring them.

Mr. Bill Walker: Does my hon. Friend agree that the resources of the NHS are its staff, its equipment and its buildings? Does he further agree that it is how those resources are managed that will affect patients, and that, unless they are managed effectively and properly, all the qualified people in the world would not be able to assist patients?

Mr. Malone: My hon. Friend is right. He understands that the genesis of the changes to the national health service was the Griffiths report, in 1985-86, which revealed that there was a great management deficit in the NHS. The Labour party seems to think that an organisation that employs approximately 1 million people and has an annual budget in the United Kingdom of about £40 billion per annum can somehow run services on its own. That has proved not to be the case. As my hon. Friend said, more patient care is being delivered today than ever before, because of the structure and proper management put in place by the Government.

Mr. Foulkes: Is it not the case that if health services are reorganised as they were in Ayrshire--where three trusts and one board are now doing what one board managed to do previously--we shall have four times as many managers? Is that not a crazy way in which to run a health service?

Mr. Malone: I will say only that when we reorganised the health service to abolish regional health authorities--to cut out a layer of bureaucratic administration--the hon. Gentleman voted against it.

Health Care, Huddersfield

12. Mr. Riddick: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what discussions he had about health care in Huddersfield during his recent visit to Huddersfield national health service trust. [5621]

Mr. Burns: I understand that discussions were concentrated on a number of issues, not least the excellent care provided to users by Huddersfield NHS trust.

Mr. Riddick: Is my hon. Friend aware that my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State was able to see for himself some of the superb developments that are taking place as part of the £10 million investment programme being carried out by the Huddersfield NHS trust? Does that not simply demonstrate the Conservative Government's total commitment to the NHS in Yorkshire? Is he aware that I receive far fewer complaints about the local NHS in my part the world than about my local Labour-controlled council?

Mr. Burns: My hon. Friend is right to identify the £10 million that has been invested over the past 18 months in hospital facilities in the Huddersfield area, including a new neurology ward, the Greenlea oncology suite, a relocated intensive care unit with new dedicated facilities and the refurbished orthopaedic out-patient

3 Dec 1996 : Column 789

department. I am sure that my hon. Friend agrees that it is no wonder that he gets fewer complaints about his excellent local national health service provision than he does about his local authority, because people are fed up to the back teeth with the shroud waving, moaning and carping of the Labour party.

Mr. Campbell-Savours: When the Secretary of State visited Huddersfield and met the impressive team that runs the trust, did he mention page 124 of the Red Book--a page which I am sure that the Minister knows off by heart? In particular, did he mention the lines that refer to health, of which the NHS budget forms a part? The total health budget from 1997 to--

Hon. Members: Reading.

Madam Speaker: Order. I am sure that the hon. Gentleman is not reading, but if he is, I am sure that he will stop it.

Mr. Campbell-Savours: The figure for next year is 33.4. For the year after, it is 33.2. That is a real terms reduction of 0.2 over 12 months, according to the Red Book. Will the Minister explain how it is possible to construe that reduction in real-terms expenditure over 12 months, shown in a Government document, as an increase?

Mr. Burns: The hon. Gentleman is obviously trying to help the hon. Member for Islington, South and Finsbury (Mr. Smith), who failed last night and again this morning. There is a straightforward answer to the question; there is no secret about it. He will see it confirmed if he continues to look through the Red Book. There will be a real-terms increase in spending on the national health service. The fall in the figure--[Interruption.] If the hon. Gentleman listens, he will get the answer. The fall in the figure is accounted for by the community care money being transferred to the Department of the Environment budget. If the hon. Gentleman looks at that budget, he will see the money there.

Mrs. Peacock: Is my hon. Friend aware that the Dewsbury Healthcare NHS trust, which serves my constituency, has a long history of low funding? Is he further aware that, since its inception, the Calderdale and Kirklees health authority, based in Huddersfield, has done nothing to redress the balance?

Mr. Burns: I am grateful to my hon. Friend for drawing the problem to my attention. She will be aware of the record increase, in the context of total national health service funding, in last year's budget.--[Interruption.]

Madam Speaker: Order. The House cannot hear the Minister unless he uses the microphone.

Mr. Burns: I am extremely grateful to my hon. Friend for drawing the problem to my attention.

3 Dec 1996 : Column 790

---