| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
Emergency Cases
14. Mrs. Janet Dean (Burton): How many emergency cases were treated by the NHS during the years to the end of March (a) 1999, (b) 1998 and (c) 1997; and if he will make a statement. [92597]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health (Gisela Stuart): The numbers of emergency cases treated by the national health service are as follows: in 1998-99, 3,904,162; and in 1997-98, 3,783,350. The figure for 1996-97 is not included as that year was the first that data were collected for admissions rather than consultant episodes and the data are not as reliable.
Mrs. Dean: I would also add my congratulations to my hon. Friend on her appointment to the Front Bench. I wish her well and I thank her for her answer. We must all be concerned about the number of emergency admissions to the health service. Will my hon. Friend tell the House how the Government are tackling that increase?
Gisela Stuart: I thank my hon. Friend for her kind remarks.
It is the Government's long-term aim to provide alternatives to acute hospital admissions. While it is true to say that accident and emergency admissions have increased year on year, the increase of 3.2 per cent. in the last year represented a slower rate of increase than in previous years. The actions that we have taken include rapid response teams, which enable patients to stay in their homes while care packages are put together. More importantly, we should recognise that one of the Government's priorities is to invest in improved emergency services. To that end, we have invested about £150 million alone in the last year to improve facilities. My hon. Friend will be aware that the Queen's hospital in Burton has received about £1.6 million in the current year.
Mrs. Virginia Bottomley (South-West Surrey):
In congratulating the Under-Secretary and her colleagues as well as my right hon. Friends on their new posts, I understand that the hon. Lady is to see representatives from the West Surrey health authority shortly. A recent casualty watch has found a series of patients waiting more than 20 hours at the Royal Surrey County hospital accident and emergency department. Last week, two parents told me that after their children had waited an hour and a half for head injuries to be examined at the department, they were told that it would be better to take them home and hope that all would be well. The situation
Gisela Stuart:
I am afraid that I cannot accept the right hon. Lady's assertions. If she would like me to pick up on particular cases involving hospital and trolley waits, I will be happy to do so. In general, the Government have improved not only the amount of funding for accident and emergency provision but winter planning, with which I am involved at the moment, to ensure that over the winter hospital services are improved--that provision has been better planned and better organised than ever before.
15. Mr. Tom Brake (Carshalton and Wallington):
If he will make a statement on the financial position of the Merton, Sutton and Wandsworth health authority. [92600]
The Minister of State, Department of Health (Mr. John Hutton):
The health authority has a recurrent deficit of £500,000. However, at the end of June 1999, the authority was forecasting a surplus of £600,000 for the current financial year. It is in the process of producing a recovery plan designed to bring it into recurrent balance in the year 2000-2001.
Mr. Brake:
I am grateful to the Minister for his response, but I am afraid that the financial position is worse than that he has outlined. The three local NHS trusts are all predicting large deficits. What reassurance can the hon. Gentleman give my constituents, many of whom are experiencing four to five hour waits at the accident and emergency unit at St. Helier hospital that in the coming winter months the level of service and care that they receive will improve rather than deteriorate?
Mr. Hutton:
I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for that question as it allows me to point out to him and his constituents that a £3 million programme is under way at the St. Helier hospital to modernise its accident and emergency facilities. I hope that he will join me in welcoming that.
The hon. Gentleman expressed concerned about the financial implications that have arisen as a consequence of the trust's merger. As a direct consequence of that trust reconfiguration in his constituency, it is estimated that £1.5 million of additional resources will be transferred, as it were, from the back office to the front line to improve patient care for his constituents. I hope that he is also able to welcome that announcement. For his constituents and for everyone else in the country, the Government are committed to modernising the national health service to produce a first-class service that will provide timely and appropriate health care whenever a person needs it. I am sure that he would want to welcome all the initiatives that I have been able to outline.
3.30 pm
The Prime Minister (Mr. Tony Blair): Together with my right hon. Friends the Foreign Secretary and the Home Secretary, I attended a special meeting of the European Council from 14 to 16 October in Tampere, Finland. The main purpose of the meeting was to agree the priorities for action by the European Union and member states in justice and home affairs.
We agreed action in three areas. First, on asylum and immigration we agreed: a common approach to the way in which member states deal with applications for asylum, to remove the incentive for asylum seekers to shop around, and to ensure that asylum seekers are dealt with in the first European Union member state that they enter; effective action against illegal immigration, especially against trafficking in people; and a commitment by all EU member states to treat third-country nationals who are legally resident in their countries fairly and without discrimination. All EU countries are now committed to providing equal access to education, health care and other benefits, as we do already for long-term residents in the United Kingdom. Action was also agreed in relation to the six countries of concern studied by the high-level working group, set up last year. Those countries were Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Somalia, Morocco, Albania and Iraq. We are using a broad approach involving all available policy instruments to tackle poverty and other root causes of migration.
Secondly, on judicial co-operation, we agreed that there were important areas where court decisions in one jurisdiction should be recognised elsewhere in the EU. This is needed to provide legal redress for individuals and companies when their problems, in business or leisure, originate in another member state and to co-operate better in bringing criminals to justice.
The British proposal that the cornerstone of policy in this area should be mutual recognition of court decisions, rather than the harmonisation of laws, was adopted unanimously. The European Council agreed that there must be drastic simplification of the present, slow and laborious arrangements for giving effect in one member state to the decisions of a court in another member state.
The European Council also decided that practical steps should be taken--for example, agreeing on common procedures for making small claims across internal European borders, together with making better information available to the public--in order to improve the access of all member states' citizens to justice throughout the European Union.
Thirdly, the European Council decided on a series of measures on combating cross-border crime. At our suggestion, there is to be a new task force of European police chiefs working alongside Europol, to plan and organise joint police operations across Europe. There was also agreement on our proposal to set up a European police college. A new body will be established, consisting of national prosecutors, magistrates and police officers, to assist and support investigation of organised crime and the prosecution of those involved. The principle of mutual recognition that was agreed should apply to judicial decisions in criminal cases, particularly those required to secure evidence and seize assets.
Action will be taken in due course to replace extradition with a simplified system for convicted criminals. We will also develop a fast-track extradition process for those accused of a serious crime. In addition, we agreed on a new focus among member states on youth crime, crime prevention and the protection of the victims of crime.
A comprehensive list of the action agreed by the European Council is to be found in the Council's conclusions, a copy of which has been placed in the Library.
In addition to its main business, the Council discussed the situation in Pakistan, following the military takeover there. It also had a preliminary discussion of the prospects for EU enlargement, an issue that will be a major topic for the Helsinki European Council in December. It was unanimously agreed that our commitment to enlargement must proceed.
In the margins of the European Council, I made it clear to the Prime Minister of France and the President of the European Commission that France's failure to permit the sale of British beef was unacceptable, and that the French Government had to implement EU decisions.
The EU Scientific Steering Committee is due to complete its review of the French advisory committee's report before the end of this month. If there is no new scientific evidence, the President of the Commission has agreed with me that he will insist that France implements the earlier ruling, and will take legal action if the French Government fail to do so.
| Next Section
| Index | Home Page |