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Mr. Dafis: The Minister tells us that it is for the health authority to allocate resources, and I understand that. Surely, however, the Welsh Office has a view on the specific need for the district general hospital at Bronglais to retain the range of services that it currently provides through its own specialists. In addition, surely the Welsh Office has a view--as I am sure the Government do--on the position of community hospitals. Would not the Minister regard it as unacceptable if the trust had to
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choose between those two priorities--the retention of community hospitals or the protection of the range of services available at Bronglais?
Mr. Jones: First and foremost, I say to the hon. Gentleman--as I have told him before--that we remain and will continue to remain committed to the provision of acute health care at Bronglais hospital. It is not, however, possible for me or anyone else in my position to attempt to second-guess all the decisions in the decision-making process that should occur within the health service in Wales.
There has to be a proper place for health authorities, which have now been reformed and rationalised, with great economies achieved by cutting the number of bureaucrats in the Welsh health authorities. It is their responsibility to identify the health needs of the communities in their local areas. They in turn make arrangements with NHS trusts up and down Wales to provide all that health care.
I am confident that that is the right level on which decisions should be made, are made, and will continue to be made. Dare I describe it to the hon. Gentleman as a process of real devolution, which we have brought about in the NHS in Wales and in many other fields of activity in Wales? Real devolution is a guiding principle of this Government--we believe in it, and we practise it.
Together with the health authority and Bronglais hospital, the Government will maintain their commitment to providing modern hospital health care for the people of Ceredigion. I can continue by saying to the hon. Gentleman that one obvious example of that commitment is the approval and funding of the reprovision of facilities for the elderly and mentally ill from North Road hospital, which is an inadequate and antiquated location, to a purpose-built facility at Bronglais hospital. The new scheme will include in-patient and day hospital facilities, together with associated X-ray and urodynamic services. That scheme is progressing as planned, at a projected cost of some £8.4 million--a significant commitment indeed.
In addition, Bronglais hospital has been allocated a further £900,000 capital expenditure in 1996-97 for the provision of improved pathology services and other equipment needs. The trust's commitment to the latest technology is demonstrated through its key involvement in the Telemedicine project, which received widespread publicity at national level. The trust also became the first in Wales and the second in the United Kingdom to go live on the Internet in 1995.
It is appropriate to remember at this point that this month we witnessed the 50th anniversary of Parliament passing the legislation to set up the national health service. It is a tribute to the many thousands of doctors, nurses
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When the legislation passed into law, my party gave the national health service its full support, and that support has continued ever since--indeed, for 34 of the 48 years of the life of the NHS since 1948, it has been Conservative Governments who have raised the taxes and given the money to keep the NHS running as a universal, national service that is freely available to all.
Spending on the national health service in Wales has increased by nearly 85 per cent. since the winter of 1979, when the Labour party was last in power. We have increased the resources available to the NHS by record amounts. There are more nurses, midwives, doctors and dentists than in 1979. We are proud of the expanded and improved NHS that we enjoy today. This Government have presided over the biggest hospital building programme in the history of the health service. In Wales, we spend more on the health service for every man, woman and child than is spent in England, particularly for areas with more marked health needs.
Our improvements have allowed us to continue to expand the NHS in Wales. New hospitals are coming for St. David's and the Royal infirmary in Cardiff, Baglan, Bronllys, Newtown and Ynys y Plwm near Llantrisant, and there will be a new cancer centre in north Wales.
On its 50th birthday, we can look back with pride at a health service that works. It works because it has adapted, while remaining true to its founding principles. It works because it has a Conservative Government who are committed to real increases in health spending.
This Government have continued to demonstrate their commitment to the development of a health care system in Wales that not only meets the needs of today but is designed to take the service well into the next millennium. That can be truly effective only if all the component parts of the NHS in Wales work together with a strategic view of the way ahead.
It cannot be denied that health care provision in Ceredigion and mid-Wales faces particular pressures, but I have every confidence that Dyfed Powys health authority and local GPs will want to ensure that their local hospital is used for the best and fullest benefit of the population in that rural area. That is exactly in line with the extract from the trust chairman's report describing the way in which the community regards both Bronglais hospital and the trust, which the hon. Gentleman quoted with great pride. Working together, they will see the way forward as one of co-ordination and co-operation for fulfilling the accepted objective of always striving to provide the people of Ceredigion with the best possible quality of health care.
Question put and agreed to.
Adjourned accordingly at three minutes to Seven o'clock.
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