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Mr. Horam: I am happy to give the hon. Gentleman that assurance and I will write to him, having investigated the state of play on the Chester-le-Street community hospital.
At the end of July, the hon. Members for North Durham and for North-West Durham visited me to discuss the important and innovative scheme for Dryburn. The hon. Lady then vigorously explained the need to update the facilities and I know that there is considerable local support for the scheme.
It is fair to say that the hon. Lady emphasised her enthusiasm for the proposals going ahead at Shotley Bridge, transforming it into a community-style hospital that would work in parallel with the Dryburn scheme. I can well understand her frustration and her wish that a new hospital be developed at Durham. I too would like--and indeed expect--progress to be made, but it is necessary for the scheme to pass through a rigorous process to obtain an affordable, high-quality hospital, which is good value for money and provides excellent facilities. The project is worth about £65 million. The hurdles that it must surmount are not particularly unusual and are generally overcome. The PFI route for North Durham also offers the opportunity to construct new facilities in one phase rather than via a phased development. One of the advantages of the PFI system is that everything can be done at once. As the hon. Lady and the hon. Gentleman will be aware from their experiences in north Durham, hospitals constructed via the public route often involve one, two, or three phases which can disadvantage the local community.
The hon. Lady voiced her strong concerns about the future of the PFI scheme in Durham. I am assured that the trust and the County Durham health authority are working jointly on measures to bridge the "affordability gap". The next step will be for the trust to finalise the full business case for the project and ensure that it has health authority agreement. I give both hon. Members this assurance: I am personally involved with the case and I know that all the parties concerned locally--the trust, the health authority and the regional arm of the national health service executive--are working extremely hard on the project.
As Minister responsible for PFI schemes, I assure the hon. Lady that the project remains a high priority. It is one of the leading PFI schemes and it enjoys my full
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The hon. Lady said that the transfer from Shotley Bridge to Dryburn should not take place without adequate improvements to the hospital at Dryburn. In a sense, the PFI scheme and those improvements are linked. I also recognise the point made by Dr. Robson in his letter that the improvements are necessary on clinical grounds. They will go forward on clinical grounds, as the financial grounds are not strong. Clinical needs and patient care are the important factors driving the improvements at Dryburn. I recognise the hon. Lady's assertion that coronary care, intensive care and extra operating theatres are the three key issues around which the improvements revolve. I hope that I have reassured the hon. Lady that the scheme does not lack priority: it will go ahead if the parties who are currently working extremely hard continue to do so.
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Finally, I turn to the overall position of the health authority. The hon. Members will be aware from the letters that they have received in the past week or so that the health authority received an integrated allocation for next year of £295.7 million--which is a £6.4 million real cash increase and a 2.3 per cent. increase. They will know that Durham is an under-target health authority: its budget is below what it would receive normally. Therefore, it will continue to receive above-average increases in revenue, year on year, until it reaches the target level. At present it is about 1.6 per cent. below the target--which is not a lot--so it will benefit in future years.
We intend to try to raise all health authorities in the country to the correct revenue levels steadily, year on year. We cannot achieve our objective in one year, but we shall reach our target over time. The health authority is in a promising position as it will receive the revenue necessary to deal with some of the immediate problems facing the trust. For all those reasons--first, the commitment of the PFI scheme; and, secondly, the situation facing the health authority--the hon. Lady has reason to be optimistic.
Question put and agreed to.
Adjourned accordingly at twenty-six minutes to Nine o'clock.
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