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9.9 pm
Mr. Harold Best (Leeds, North-West): I am grateful for the opportunity to make my first contribution to this honourable House by participating in the debate.
Tradition has it that I should comment about my constituency and my predecessor. I can do both with considerable pleasure. My predecessor was Keith Hampson, whom I got to know fairly well. By common consent of all in the constituency, he was a good constituency Member of Parliament. He worked on behalf of his constituents, and he also played an important role on behalf of his party. He supported the Government most of the time, I understand, while maintaining that critical faculty which is essential for any self-respecting, active politician.
As an opponent in the recent general election, Keith Hampson's behaviour was both warm and proper. I am truly grateful for the way in which he behaved, and I have fond memories of him. In short, he was a good man, and, I am pleased to say, remains a good man. I look forward to seeing him again, but not in this place.
My constituency, Leeds, North-West, is a wonderful mixture of places and people. It runs from an inner-city area known locally as Hyde Park, out to the beautiful lower Wharfedale. In the lower part of lower Wharfedale, it encompasses the lovely little town of Otley, which is picturesque but extremely hard-working. The constituency is a fine mixture of industrial and urban life, and rural idyll.
The constituency manages to mix high technology in the electrical engineering industry--the production of precision electrical switchgear--with a successful farming industry. Sadly, there is also considerable unemployment in the inner-city part, and other associated problems.
We have in the constituency the greater part of two large universities. Living in a particular area are 35,000 students, who have not been without significant influence on the electoral process. Given their recent voting pattern, I hope that that remains so. I am one of the few candidates who moved from third place in the constituency to first place.
We also have two large hospitals in the constituency. Wharfedale general hospital is an extremely successful general hospital. It provides exactly the kind of services needed from a general hospital and, in addition to serving the health needs of the people of Wharfedale, it provides 600 jobs, which is not insignificant in a rural area.
Cookridge hospital specialises in radiotherapy treatment. It helps thousands of people from all over the area, as far and wide as Newcastle and Sheffield. It is seen largely as a regional hospital treating cancer patients.
In recent years, those fine hospitals have been under a cloud of uncertainty and anxiety about their future. We have tried to resolve the matter within the constituency. People need to know that hospital services will be available when they need them. It is a question not just of the services being freely available, but of their being available when they are needed.
There are serious doubts about the continued operation of Wharfedale hospital. A review has been conducted, and we have tried to obtain the results. During the review process, the representatives of various management levels attended public meetings, and assured all concerned that they would soon know about the proposals.
Although we have addressed the appropriate questions to the appropriate levels, we are none the wiser. Most people believe that the problem lies with the last few years of Conservative government. When we have received replies from management, I have been reminded of the American President Calvin Coolidge in the early part of the century, of whom it was said:
It is not that local people have not made an effort: town and district councillors have campaigned on behalf of the hospital, and petitions have been organised. However, the deafening silence continues. Otley town council enlisted the assistance of a local employer, and located a large plot of land. The council and that employer may be able to find the funding necessary to develop a private finance initiative project. However, we have received no response from Government--until now.
It seems that the future of Wharfedale was taken seriously by everyone except the Tory Government and the hospital administration. I am pleased to see that that situation has changed. I have written to my right hon. Friend about the issue, and I have already received a reply. We are looking forward to the conclusion of further developments that will bring light and hope to my area. We are certain that the review's findings will be positive.
Mr. Tim Loughton (East Worthing and Shoreham):
I congratulate the hon. Member for Leeds, North-West (Mr. Best) on his eloquent maiden speech and thank him for his kind words about his predecessor, Keith Hampson. The hon. Gentleman is truly privileged to represent a constituency in God's county.
I congratulate other hon. Members who have made their maiden speeches tonight. The hon. Member for Hemel Hempstead (Mr. McWalter) referred to Robert James. I agreed with the hon. Gentleman about hedgerows and driving up the M1. However, when he spoke of the Conservative Government's treatment of a hospital in his constituency, my foot remained on the accelerator and I continued along the M1.
I should also mention the exceedingly eloquent contribution of the hon. Member for Dartford (Dr. Stoate). It must be satisfying to be able to contribute to a debate on a subject in which one has professional knowledge and for which one has trained. Alas, for my part, I decided it was politic not to wait for a debate on Mesopotamian architecture before I pitched in with my contribution. If the hon. Gentleman's skills as a doctor match his skills as an orator, he must have a healthy bunch of constituents.
The hon. Member for Southwark, North and Bermondsey (Mr. Hughes) rightly said that it was ironic that the Opposition are using the first opportunity presented to them to attack the Government on the words that they are using about the national health service.
The Secretary of State made an interesting and informative speech: alas, that was not this evening and not in the Chamber. The right hon. Gentleman has, of course, brought the debate upon himself by the words that he has uttered recently. It is ironic that only a few weeks ago the electorate faced the scam of a manifesto that, in effect, carried the banner, "We shall save the NHS". Appalling scaremongering about the NHS went with that. With indecent haste, the "Save the NHS" banner has become "Let's save the NHS a lot of money" by introducing charges never contemplated by the Conservative Government.
The Secretary of State promises one of the now legendary Government reviews. We are promised that it will be a no-holds-barred review. The right hon. Gentleman says, "We are counting nothing in and nothing out." That hokey-cokey approach to election pledges is symptomatic of the steamroller approach that is characteristic of the Government's early days.
My hon. Friend the Member for Stratford-on-Avon (Mr. Maples), speaking from the Opposition Front Bench, repeatedly invited the Secretary of State to deny that the Government have any intention of introducing the charges to which I have referred and to say that they are counting the fundamental tenets of the NHS out of their review. Those tenets include free-at-the-point-of-access care and other fundamental beliefs on which Conservatives have run the NHS for most of the century.
The Secretary of State refused to rule out the possibility that the Government are considering introducing charges for hotel accommodation. The right hon. Gentleman refused also to rule out the introduction of charges for interviews with general practitioners. He refused again, most markedly for my constituency, which has the highest proportion of pensioners in the country, to rule out the prospect of charging pensioners for prescriptions.
Helen Jones (Warrington, North):
Will the hon. Gentleman give way?
Mr. Loughton:
I shall continue. There is not long before the Front Bench spokesmen respond to the debate.
A few years back, the Secretary of State, as he now is, said:
I take up the issue of charges for interviews with GPs. In West Sussex generally we have a fine reputation for GP fundholders. Over two thirds of GP practices in the county are fundholding practices. I spent much time with skilled fundholders. I sat in surgeries and watched pensioners come in and go out.
In one surgery, which I have visited many times, an elderly patient saw the doctor about some growths on his wrist. It is a common ailment for elderly people. The doctor asked him, "Can you come back tomorrow? I shall do it then." The patient, who lived just up the road, was able to return 24 hours later and have the growths removed under local anaesthetic by his own GP, one of more than 80 per cent. of GPs who are qualified to perform minor surgery. That cost a fraction of what it would have cost to send him to the nearby Worthing hospital, where he would have been put on a waiting list and have had to wait months for that treatment. Will such treatment be liable for charges? Is there any incentive for that person and many like him to go to such a local community hospital GP fundholder practice to be cured of minor ailments? I contend that there is no incentive.
West Sussex is already penalised by not having a fair share of the NHS funding cake, especially in the Worthing district. The prospect of pensioners having to pay for prescriptions is already causing untold worry to many of my constituents. The issue has appeared on the front pages of my local press, as it did in the local newspaper of my hon. Friend the Member for Maidenhead (Mrs. May). Under the previous Government, more than 82 per cent. of prescriptions were free, and the number of NHS treatments that registered a charge declined, so that they accounted for less than 2 per cent. of overall NHS funding. That is a worthy record of declining charges, but now, unless the Government deny it, it will be severely reversed.
Only two countries in the European Union charge pensioners for prescriptions. We are one of the few European Union countries that does not charge for visits to GPs. Are we to be subjected to a harmonisation of GP and prescription charges to show ourselves as good Europeans?
We have been promised--and are likely to see in the Budget next week--the abolition of tax breaks for pensioners who have taken out private health care insurance. That is yet another example of false economy. Those people who, as a result, will not be able to pay for private health care will be added to NHS waiting lists, just as those who are unable to go on the assisted places scheme will add to the supposed overcrowding in many classrooms.
It is clear that we are starting to see the Government's hidden agenda. They want to claw back money from the elderly and the vulnerable to make up for the shortcomings of their commitments. They want to make up for the enormous bill that the minimum wage will generate when it is introduced into the NHS: it will probably amount to more than £500 million. They want to make up for adding pensioners to waiting lists by scrapping the tax relief on their private health care policies, which will have a domino effect.
"He didn't say much but, when he did, he didn't say much."
That is the kind of response that we have received from Tory Ministers and the layers of hospital management with which we have had to deal.
"The Tories know that the people of this country fear for the future of the NHS. That is why they have kept under wraps the far right ideas of charges for visiting the doctor or for staying in hospital."
Far right--that is scary stuff. The Labour party has come a long way.
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