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DELEGATED LEGISLATION
Mr. Deputy Speaker (Sir Michael Lord): With the leave of the House, I shall put together the Questions on the motions relating to delegated legislation.
Food Supplements Regulations
- That the Food Supplements (England) Regulations 2003 (S.I., 2003, No. 1387), be referred to a Standing Committee on Delegated Legislation.
Immigration and Asylum Appeals
- That the Immigration and Asylum Appeals (Fast Track Procedure) Rules 2003 (S.I., 2003, No. 801), be referred to a Standing Committee on Delegated Legislation.—[Dan Norris.]
Standing Committee on the Convention
- That the Order [12th June 2002] relating to the Standing Committee on the Convention be amended in paragraph (4)(b), by leaving out the words 'or be counted in the quorum'.—[Dan Norris.]
PETITIONS
Children's Play Areas
7.29 pm
Barbara Follett (Stevenage): I have great pleasure in presenting a petition signed by 268 residents of Stevenage.
- The Petition of Residents of the Martins Wood Ward of the town of Stevenage
Declares that they object in principle to the proposed development of the children's play area between Martins Way and Vardon Road also known as the land opposite 276 to 280 Wisden Road which is shown on title deeds as HD97278.
The petitioners therefore request that the House of Commons urge the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions to take all measures which lie within his power to prevent the sale of this amenity land for development and to enforce the covenant enshrined in the original title deed.
Fireworks
7.30 pm
Mr. Paul Truswell (Pudsey): I present a petition signed by 4,000 of my Pudsey constituents and others concerning their wish for tighter legislation governing the sale, use and noise of fireworks. Its timing is particularly appropriate, given that the Fireworks Bill introduced by my hon. Friend the Member for Hamilton, South (Mr. Tynan) will be considered by the House on Friday when, we hope, it will successfully complete its Report stage and Third Reading.
- The petition of residents of Pudsey constituency and others
Declares that fireworks have become an increasingly unacceptable source of harm, nuisance and distress to people and animals throughout the year.
The Petitioners therefore request that the House of Commons enact legislation that limits the noise levels of fireworks available to the general public, controls the time of year when fireworks can be bought and used, restricts the times when fireworks can be set off, and requires public displays to be controlled by licensed technicians.
And the Petitioners remain, etc.
Local Pharmacies
7.31 pm
Jane Griffiths (Reading, East): It is an honour and privilege to present a petition on behalf of residents of Reading and Woodley, particularly the customers of Peskett pharmacy in Christchurch road, Reading and residents in the Lodden Vale, Woodley, Erleigh road and Cemetery junction areas.
- That local pharmacies should be preserved and their continued services to local communities safeguarded.
The Petitioners therefore request that the Government reject proposals in the Office of Fair Trading report that would allow unrestricted opening of pharmacies able to dispense NHS prescriptions and replace them with proposals which will retain pharmacies at the heart of the local community playing a key role in primary care services.
And the petitioners remain etc.
Royal Victoria Hospital, Kent (Pharmacy)
Motion made, and Question proposed, That this House do now adjourn.—[Dan Norris.]
7.32 pm
Mr. Michael Howard (Folkestone and Hythe): For some unaccountable reason, there appear to be fewer hon. Members in the House this evening than there were on Monday afternoon. Nevertheless, I am extremely grateful for the opportunity to raise a matter of considerable concern to my constituents.
The availability of hospital services in east Kent has been a matter of intense local controversy for a number of years, and this is not the first occasion on which it has been raised on the Adjournment of the House. A number of my colleagues, notably my hon. Friend the Member for Canterbury (Mr. Brazier), whom I am delighted to see in the Chamber this evening, and I have raised this question in the past. The whole question of the reconfiguration of hospital care in east Kent is under independent consideration. That could have taken place some time ago if the Secretary of State for Health had heeded the representations that I and a number of colleagues, including my hon. Friend the Member for Canterbury, made about the need for another look at this vexed problem.
The purpose of my representations this evening, however, is more limited, and relates specifically to a proposal by East Kent Hospitals trust to close the pharmacy at Royal Victoria hospital in Folkestone. The trust is clearly not opposed in principle to pharmacy provision in hospitals, as it does not propose to close pharmacies in any other hospital for which it is responsible. Its proposal to close the pharmacy at Royal Victoria hospital is, so far as I can see, based entirely on a desire to save money.
No one would quarrel with sensible proposals to save money that did not affect the quality of the health care available to those who need it. It is clear that something needs to change in the way in which health care is delivered in east Kent. East Kent Hospitals trust is in considerable financial difficulty. I understand that its deficit is the second largest in the country.
That can be a result of one of only two possible causes, so far as I can see. Either the way in which national resources for health are being distributed is grossly inefficient and unfair to east Kent, or the resources made available to East Kent Hospitals trust have been grossly mismanaged. The answer must lie in one or other of those causes or, I suppose, a combination of the two. I make it clear that I am not this evening asking for an increase in the amount of money devoted to health nationally.
There are particular problems in east Kent that can have arisen only in one of the two ways that I have identified. I hope that the Minister will comment specifically on that point in his reply. I have repeatedly asked for explanations of why the deficit that East Kent Hospitals trust has incurred is so large. It is not at all clear to me, despite the explanations that I have received, which of the two causes is responsible. Whatever the answer to that question, it is essential that whenever changes are made to the provision of health care in a particular area, they should be clearly and convincingly explained, and the rationale behind such changes should be both comprehensible and persuasive.
Despite the fact that I recently had a meeting lasting well over an hour with the chairman and chief executive of East Kent Hospitals trust, at which the head of pharmacy was also present, I regret to say that no clear and convincing explanation has been given for the proposal to close the pharmacy unit at Royal Victoria hospital, and that I, at any rate, am by no means persuaded of the logic of the proposal.
The savings that the trust claims would result from the proposal fall into three main categories. The first, and by far the most significant, arises out of the trust's natural and understandable desire to reduce the costs that it currently incurs in paying for the supply of locum pharmacy staff in its hospitals. I am sure that most people would agree that it would be much better to avoid those costs by recruiting permanent staff whenever that is possible. I entirely understand that objective.
The irony, however, is that only one hospital in the trust's area does not suffer from a shortfall in pharmacy staff, which makes it necessary to employ locums. That hospital is Royal Victoria hospital in Folkestone. The pharmacy at Royal Victoria hospital is fully staffed. There is no need to pay for or provide any locums in Folkestone. In effect, Royal Victoria hospital is being punished for the failure of other hospitals in the area for which the trust is responsible to recruit the necessary staff for their pharmacies.
So far as the savings are concerned, the strategy of the trust seems to be based on the assumption that pharmacy staff currently employed in Folkestone will readily accept employment at one of the other hospitals in the trust's area. From my preliminary discussions with those involved, that assumption is questionable. In any event, it seems an entirely capricious way of achieving a desirable objective. To punish one hospital and the people whom it serves because of the failure of other hospitals in a particular area to recruit the staff that they need seems perverse, yet that is the principle on which the trust appears to have approached the issue. It is not an acceptable approach, and it should not be accepted without protest.
The second major saving identified by the trust as a basis for its proposal is the reduced need that would arise, if the proposal were implemented, for stocking medicines at Royal Victoria hospital. Obviously, if no pharmacy services are provided at the hospital, there would be less need to stock medicines at the hospitals. But, save to a very small extent arising out of the need to provide particular quantities of some medicines at any particular location, those savings are largely illusory. The people who currently receive their medicines from the pharmacy at Royal Victoria hospital will still need those medicines. They will have to be supplied from other sources—either other hospitals served by the trust or pharmacies in the general community.
If the Office of Fair Trading's competition proposals for pharmacies are fully implemented, many of my constituents, particularly those in rural areas, may find it difficult to obtain access to pharmacies, but that is a wider debate for another day.
What is clear is that this proposal will not reduce the need for medicines among my constituents who obtain their medicines from the pharmacy at Royal Victoria
hospital, so the medicines will have to be supplied elsewhere and the cost of stocking elsewhere will therefore rise, either in the other hospitals in the trust's area or in pharmacies in the community. Those savings, therefore, cannot be significant.Finally, and even more astonishingly, the trust claims as a saving the consequences of an astonishing anomaly in the way in which VAT is charged on medicines. I confess that I was completely unaware of the anomaly until my attention was focused on it by the trust's proposal, but it apparently exists and I shall be very interested in the Minister's explanation for it.
Apparently, VAT is chargeable on medicine supplied from a pharmacy in a hospital. It is not chargeable on medicine supplied from a pharmacy in the community. Therefore, the trust argues that the health budget generally in the east Kent area will benefit from the closure of the pharmacy at Royal Victoria hospital because some of the patients who get their medicines from the hospital will instead get their medicines from pharmacies in the community, on which VAT will not be payable. That explanation is quite mind-boggling.
I have written to the Chancellor of the Exchequer to ask him to explain the anomaly and to say what he proposes to do about it. I very much hope that the Minister will be able to enlighten us in his reply as to the Government's position on that matter.
My constituents have been unhappy for some years now about the nature and quality of the health care provided to them by East Kent Hospitals NHS trust. I have said on other occasions that if I had in front of me two boxes full of the complaints that I have received from my constituents over the 20 years during which I have had the honour to represent them, and one box represented the complaints that I had in the first 15 years of that period and the other box represented the complaints that I have had in the past five years, the second box would be twice the size of the first.
I deplore that situation. I have campaigned for some time for steps to be taken to reverse it. The proposal to close the pharmacy at Royal Victoria hospital in Folkestone is but the latest blow to strike my constituents in the area of health care. I do not think that it can be justified. I hope that in his reply the Minister will be able to offer my constituents some assurance.
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