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Mental Health Services
3. Mr. Miller: To ask the Secretary of State for Health when he last met the chairmen of health authorities to discuss services for mentally ill people. [10358]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health (Mr. Simon Burns): I meet chairmen of health authorities whenever issues of mutual interest need to be discussed.
Mr. Miller: Will the Minister comment on the report published today by the King's Fund commission? Does
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he agree that it shows that, after 18 years of Conservative rule, London does not have a comprehensive mental health strategy? In the light of that report, will he also look carefully at the proposed mergers of NHS trusts such as the West Cheshire and Wirral Community Healthcare NHS trusts in my constituency, and ensure that any mergers are approved only on the basis of patient care and need, not managerial convenience?
Mr. Burns: The King's Fund report, published today, is important in that it coincides with much of the work that we have done at the Department of Health on the provision of mental health services in London. No one could disagree that those services are under pressure. Unfortunately, since the creation of the NHS, both inside and outside the medical profession, mental health care has been the Cinderella service. That has been tackled over the past five years with significant increases in funding and targeted funding to deal with particular issues.
The important issue that the report highlights--weighted capitation funding--has already been decided on by the Government; we have changed the system and implemented the proposal so as to improve comprehensive community services. In that respect we are one step ahead of the report.
As for the hon. Gentleman's constituency point, the merger is subject to consultation, and a decision will be taken in due course. I know that he would not expect me to comment at this stage.
Mrs. Ann Winterton:
Does my hon. Friend accept that there is a gap in the services for mentally ill young people, and that the services offered for children and adults, many of the latter elderly, are not appropriate for this age group? Will he give support to voluntary groups, such as VISYON in Congleton, which seek to highlight the problem and to support mentally ill young people and their families?
Mr. Burns:
A great deal of work is going on with regard to young people and adolescents because of the problems that have arisen. One such problem is that, because of the age of that group, they have never been used to institutional care. As part of the programme of improving and developing a comprehensive mental health service, we have in place the children's and adolescent mental health programme. We are well aware of the problems facing that target group. More must be done in the area because, as I said earlier, in the past--since the creation of the health service--it has not had the same priority as, say, accident and emergency services. We welcome all input to improve and enhance the provision of care, from the voluntary sector as well as within the health service.
Ms Coffey:
As today's King's Fund report on mental health in London clearly shows that services in the inner city are in a state of near collapse, will the Minister explain the huge gap between his recent reassurances and the reality outlined in the report? Is he now finally prepared to accept that that Cinderella service is not providing care in the community for mentally ill people and their families or proper protection for the public in London or elsewhere?
Mr. Burns:
No, I do not accept that analysis. The hon. Lady is well aware that record sums of money are being
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Sir Roger Sims:
Services for mentally ill people include not only medical provision in hospital but the provision of adequate housing accommodation when patients are ready to leave hospital so that they do not block beds. May I suggest that my hon. Friend urges the chairmen of health authorities to work closely with local housing associations to ensure that appropriate housing is provided? May I also suggest that he discusses with his colleagues in the Department of the Environment the fact that they, too, should urge housing associations to make such provision and ensure that housing associations have the resources to do so?
Mr. Burns:
I hope that my hon. Friend is reassured that he has identified two important areas that are already at the crux of Government policy. We encourage housing authorities, housing associations, social services and health authorities to work together so that there is a multidisciplinary approach. That is the best way to cut through the problems and reach a solution as quickly as possible. Another area where the Government are doing a great deal of interrelated work is on drug and alcohol abuse, which is a contributory factor in much mental illness.
4. Mr. Skinner:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health what are the latest figures for the number of hospitals closed since 1979. [10359]
The Minister for Health (Mr. Gerald Malone):
This information is not available centrally.
Mr. Skinner:
I am surprised that the Government have not fiddled those figures as well. All of us on Opposition Benches know the figures--they are in the Library. Since 1979, 20 per cent. of all hospitals have been closed by this lousy, rotten Government. That is the truth.
On a day when we are told that 400 critically ill children have been turned away from intensive care in the past three months by the tawdry lot opposite, is it not a fitting epitaph for this Government that the national health service is now filled with patients on trolleys in corridors from the cradle to the grave? It is time that the Government got the sack.
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Mr. Malone:
The hon. Gentleman's reference to the exercise by his own party earlier this morning will be exposed by my right hon. Friend in the debate that follows as a disgraceful ruse. The statistics for hospitals have never been collected centrally. That has been explained in a number of written answers, as the Opposition know. For a party that wants to cut bureaucracy, it would be bizarre if Labour started to collect those figures now, as they are far less relevant than the figures that show how many people are being treated in the NHS, which is what counts.
The hon. Gentleman might be interested to know that, during the past few years, there has been an investment of £15 million in capital building in his health authority. Why does he not welcome that, along with the fact that more patients are being treated? That is what counts.
Dame Jill Knight:
Is it not also true that a great many new hospitals have been opened since 1979? Furthermore, is it not true that some hospitals, which were very old and not in a suitable state to serve the public properly, have been renovated, such as the general hospital in Birmingham, which is being converted to the new children's hospital? When Opposition Members speak like the hon. Member for Bolsover (Mr. Skinner), they show that they are dinosaurs who want hospitals built in the early 1900s to remain unchanged and unimproved.
Mr. Malone:
My hon. Friend is right to point that out. The hon. Member for Bolsover (Mr. Skinner) an expert in supporting outdated Victorian industrial practices, now seems to want to do the same for Victorian buildings and hospitals. There has been substantial investment in real estate in the NHS. That investment is now threatened by the Opposition, who do not accept the private finance initiative which will be responsible for the building of more hospitals in their constituencies. They would put that at risk.
5. Mr. Gapes:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health when he next plans to visit Redbridge to discuss the financial position of Redbridge and Waltham Forest health authority and the situation in local hospitals. [10360]
Mr. Malone:
The national health service executive is in regular contact with national health service organisations on behalf of Ministers. I have no immediate plans to visit Redbridge and Waltham Forest health authority.
Mr. Gapes:
Why not? Does not the Minister know that, in my health authority, there is a £6 million deficit, that Whipps Cross hospital has cancelled elective admissions since just after Christmas because it cannot cope with accident and emergency admissions, and that King George hospital has 97 per cent. bed occupancy? People are frequently left on trolleys for 12, 15 or 20 hours. Why does not the Minister have the courage to come to my local hospital? I will take him there and show him the problems that the Government have created.
Mr. Malone:
If invited, I shall visit the hon. Gentleman's constituency, and I shall be delighted to see the excellent work that has been carried out by the trust in his health authority. He fails to recognise the
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Mr. Duncan Smith:
I encourage my hon. Friend to visit that health authority. Notwithstanding any difficulties that it, like many other health authorities, experiences, will my hon. Friend point out that more than £23 million of capital expenditure has been put into the main hospital there, Whipps Cross hospital, which has resulted in brand new surgeries and a brand new accident and emergency wing, from which local people now benefit?
Mr. Malone:
A cross-party invitation is almost impossible to resist, even with a busy diary. If invited formally, I shall certainly try to make time to acknowledge the progress in the constituency of the hon. Member for Ilford, South (Mr. Gapes) and the progress to which my hon. Friend drew attention--progress that would not take place if a Government ever got into office who could not make the pledge made by the Prime Minister, that a Conservative Government would continue to fund the health service and to increase funding in real terms year on year.
Ms Jowell:
The nation would be reassured if the Minister would face up to the crisis that is confronting accident and emergency departments throughout the country. What does he have to say to the nurse whom I met recently at Edgware hospital--
Madam Speaker:
Order. This question refers to hospitals that are local to Redbridge and Waltham Forest.
Ms Jowell:
As at Whipps Cross hospital in Redbridge, which has also been gripped by crisis, the nurse said:
Mr. Malone:
I would be delighted to meet the ambulatory nurse to whom the hon. Lady refers. She seems to move with great felicity from one health authority to another, depending on the question that is posed. I would tell that nurse that I am sure that she recognises the investment that the Government have made in the health service. If the hon. Lady wants to set the nation's mind at rest, perhaps she and her Front-Bench colleagues could stop drumming up spoof reports--which are based on no facts whatsoever--to scare the public.
"It has been like a war zone here. We have had to put up 18 beds in the minor injuries unit and the Government tells us that there is no crisis."
When will the Government face the fact that there is a winter crisis in the national health service?
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