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NHS Direct
10. Miss Melanie Johnson (Welwyn Hatfield): If he will estimate the number of people to be covered by NHS Direct by April 1999. [57359]
15. Mr. Alan Johnson (Hull, West and Hessle): If he will estimate the number of people to be covered by NHS Direct by April 1999. [57364]
The Minister of State, Department of Health (Mr. Alan Milburn): The second wave of NHS Direct, which will be operational by April next year, will cover 20 million people, or more than 40 per cent. of the population of England.
Miss Johnson: I thank my right hon. Friend for that answer. My constituents and I are green with envy that coverage is being achieved elsewhere in the country. As the millennium is approaching, and given the potential of NHS Direct in changing the way in which the ambulance service works and the demands upon it, may I have an assurance that my constituents will have NHS Direct by 2000? May I have a pledge from my hon. Friend?
Mr. Milburn: Yes. Like all our pledges, it will be kept. We are a Government who keep our promises. By the end of 2000, NHS Direct will be available in my hon. Friend's community and in every community in the land. The Government have made available an extra £44 million to spread the availability of NHS Direct, not just to second-wave areas but beyond, to ensure that all communities have the benefit of instant access to 24-hour, 365-day-a-year care from expert nurses at the end of a telephone. That is already proving its worth in many communities and we are determined to spread its benefits everywhere.
Mr. David Amess (Southend, West): Will the Minister confirm whether the general public will be able to use the telephone line to ask why the research and development budget has been cut by £10 million, which has been switched to the hospital waiting lists initiative? Will my constituents be able to use the telephone line to ask why, as a result of Government pressure, a local orthopaedic consultant has cancelled an out-patient clinic in order to carry out operations and that, as a result, the waiting time for outpatients has risen from 26 weeks to 40 weeks? Are my constituents right to believe that the figures are being fiddled?
Mr. Milburn: No. The hon. Gentleman's constituents are wrong. That is not the appropriate use for NHS Direct. However, I can tell the hon. Gentleman that his health authority will receive an extra £28 million as a consequence of my right hon. Friend's decisions today. I hope that he and his constituents will welcome that.
Acute Beds
11. Mr. Bill Michie (Sheffield, Heeley): What action he is taking to identify the number and use of acute beds in the NHS. [57360]
The Minister for Public Health (Ms Tessa Jowell): My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State announced on 30 September the establishment of a national inquiry into hospital beds. This work is already well under way within the Department and the findings will be published next spring.
Mr. Michie: I thank my right hon. Friend for that reply and for the £367 million plus to Sheffield health authority. The money will certainly help and it is very welcome. May I raise the issue of mental illness, which to a large extent is still considered to be the Cinderella service within the national health service? It needs special attention at present and I am asking whether that would be possible.
Ms Jowell: Obviously, my hon. Friend raises an important point. Certainly it is absolutely crucial to have an adequate number of psychiatric beds to ensure that mental health services can meet and respond to the range of needs in psychiatric patients--for example, by providing day care services locally. My hon. Friend will be aware that an expert group is drawing up a national service framework in order to develop a proper national framework for the delivery of psychiatric services. His point about ensuring an adequate number of beds in relation to those provided for other services will be part of that consideration.
Dr. Julian Lewis (New Forest, East): Will the figures for acute beds in the NHS specify how many of them will be in mixed-sex wards in acute psychiatric units? Does the Minister recall the Secretary of State's categorical pledge to me earlier this year that he would put a stop to the building of any new mixed-sex wards in psychiatric units? How does she square that pledge with advice given by the NHS executive to Goodmayes hospital which restates all the old discredited arguments in favour of mixed-sex wards in such units?
Ms Jowell: My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State stopped the development of a mixed-sex ward last time the subject was raised in the House. He will do the same again, if the hon. Gentleman would like to supply details.
NHS Hospitals (Funding)
13. Mr. David Borrow (South Ribble): What was the average annual real-terms percentage increase in funding for NHS hospitals between 1979 and 1997; and what is the equivalent figure planned for the next three years. [57362]
14. Mr. Ronnie Campbell (Blyth Valley): What was the average annual real-terms percentage increase in funding for hospitals in the NHS between 1979 and 1997; and what is the equivalent figure for the next three years. [57363]
The Secretary of State for Health (Mr. Frank Dobson): During the years 1979-80 to 1997-98, the annual average real-terms increase in NHS total net expenditure in England was 3.1 per cent. On 14 July, I announced the Government's investment of an extra £21 billion in the NHS--an average of 4.7 per cent. above inflation over the next three years. Next year's allocation, which was announced today, will mean an extra £9.7 million for the health service in South Lancashire and £12.5 million in Northumberland.
Mr. Borrow: I thank my right hon. Friend for that reply, which demonstrates the Labour Government's commitment to the NHS. I am concerned that residents of South Ribble have to wait 18 months for drug rehabilitation treatment. The Government have announced an extra £12 million for drug advisory services next year. Will my right hon. Friend join me in urging South Lancashire health authority to give a higher priority to drug services? Reducing the waiting lists would have beneficial effects for the health service and important implications for crime.
Mr. Dobson: We have included some earmarked funds to deal with drug treatment over-subscription and drug misuse. I hope that that will benefit my hon. Friend's area.
Mr. Campbell: Is my right hon. Friend aware that Stephen Thornton, the chief executive of the NHS Confederation, has described the level of investment in the health service as beyond his wildest dreams? How many more wonderful dreams does my right hon. Friend have up his sleeve for the health service?
Mr. Dobson: I have been called all sorts of things, but I have never been called a conjurer--so far. I am not sure that I have much left up my sleeve, or even up my right hon. Friend the Chancellor's sleeve--he has a rather more important sleeve than I do. When various pointy-headed academics, those on the Opposition Front Bench and the Liberal party were demanding an average increase over the next three years of 3 per cent., we came up with 4.7 per cent., but standards of courtesy have fallen so low that they never thanked us for it.
Mr. Shaun Woodward (Witney): The Secretary of State's announcement of more money for the health service is welcome to every hon. Member, but in Oxfordshire there is real concern about how much of the money will find its way into the local health service. At the Radcliffe infirmary, waiting lists for day in-patient treatment have risen by 119 per cent. in the past 18 months. At the Nuffield Orthopaedic hospital, only four people waited more than 12 months 18 months ago; today that figure has risen to 137 people. I have written four times to the Secretary of State on behalf of my constituents about the impending closure of Burford hospital, without receiving any replies. Will the Secretary of State take the opportunity to reassure my constituents that he will not close a single bed in Witney and that he will save Burford from closure until he does something to reduce the calamitous rise of waiting lists in Oxfordshire?
Mr. Dobson: The hon. Gentleman knows well that I shall eventually have to adjudicate on the propositions
being put forward by Oxfordshire health authority. I am prohibited from announcing my decisions until I have reached them, because I have to be fair to everyone. Today I met a delegation with the right hon. Member for Henley (Mr. Heseltine) about one of the community hospitals in Oxfordshire. Other delegations are coming to see me. I shall listen carefully to them. My officials will confirm that, sometimes to their chagrin, I do not always agree with the proposals that are put to me. It will help that Oxfordshire will be receiving £22.5 million extra next year in order to provide services. Not every delay in Oxfordshire is to do with funding; some of it is to do with the way in which things are run.
Miss Julie Kirkbride (Bromsgrove): May I anticipate the right hon. Gentleman's response to my question by welcoming any new money that his Government are proposing to spend on Worcestershire health authority? Whatever that new amount may be, will it be enough to stop cuts that his Government are imposing on Worcestershire? Will it be enough to keep open the
accident and emergency department at the Alexandra Healthcare NHS trust hospital in the constituency of his hon. Friend the Member for Redditch (Jacqui Smith)? Will it be enough to keep open the Kidderminster general hospital in the constituency of his hon. Friend the Member for Wyre Forest (Mr. Lock)? If there is not enough money to keep hospitals and A and E departments open, then it simply is not enough.
Mr. Dobson: I am glad to discover that at least one Conservative Member wants to be even more reckless than we are with public funds. She knows that proposals for changes in services in Worcestershire must come to me for decision. I shall announce my decision when I have taken it. The £18.2 million extra that Worcestershire will receive as a result of today's announcement ought to improve services and the performance of everybody in the county. That should benefit the people whom the hon. Lady represents. During debates on the next Finance Bill, I trust that she will be putting her feet where her mouth is and voting with us in the Lobby for the money that we are providing.
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