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Green Minister

11. John Barrett (Edinburgh, West) (LD): If he will make a statement on the work his Department's Green Minister has undertaken in the last three months. [169833]
 
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The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health (Miss Melanie Johnson): I have a number of responsibilities that contribute to sustainable development goals. Those include tackling health inequalities, healthy eating and physical activity. Our public health consultation, "Choosing Health?", which will run until the end of May, will also make an important contribution to the sustainable development agenda.

John Barrett : Given that disposable nappies cost the NHS £1.5 million a year and that often no choice is available to new mothers in maternity wards, does the Minister agree that one way of tackling the environmental damage caused by hospital waste would be to make a commitment to promote the use of the traditional towelling nappies?

Miss Johnson: There is no reason why individual NHS trusts and individual midwifery units should not pursue policies in line with the hon. Gentleman's suggestion. Indeed, I have had discussions with colleagues in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on just those topics. We try to ensure that all the material that goes out to new mothers clearly indicates that disposable nappies and terry nappies are both options and should be considered alongside each other in making decisions.

Bob Spink (Castle Point) (Con): Could the Green Minister, in the drive for sustainable development, ensure that the move towards centralised, very large GP centres in communities that previously enjoyed many dispersed small practices does not unnecessarily reduce access to those practices for vulnerable people—in other words, that the centres are not too centralised and that there are a number of different centres in a community?

Miss Johnson: From what he is saying, I am sure that the hon. Gentleman basically agrees with our policy, which is to decentralise decision making and services as far as possible. There is increasing support for access centres and for rural provision to ensure that people do not have to travel long distances, except where they need specialist facilities that can be provided on only a limited basis. Most patients would rather go where they can get the best possible care.

In-patients

12. Dr. Phyllis Starkey (Milton Keynes, South-West) (Lab): What progress has been made in reducing waiting times for hospital in-patients since 1997. [169834]

The Secretary of State for Health (Dr. John Reid): We have made huge progress in reducing waiting times. In 1997, there were 118,000 patients in England waiting longer than nine months for an admission. I look forward to the publication of figures this Friday, which I am confident will show that the nine-month waiting list has been eliminated in the same way as the 12-month, 15-month and 18-month waiting lists, on which now only a handful of people remain.
 
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Dr. Starkey : I remind my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State that thanks to the Government's overseas clinical teams initiative, Milton Keynes general hospital has just benefited from a team of anaesthetists and clinicians from France using our spare operating theatre capacity at weekends. As a result, the waiting lists for varicose veins and hernias have been reduced from over nine months to under six months. While thanking the Secretary of State for the additional money he has given to Milton Keynes to cope with population growth, I remind him of the extremely high rate of that growth. Will he continue to keep the situation in Milton Keynes under review so that if additional funding is needed, we can keep those waiting lists at their current low level and, if possible, reduce them still further?

Dr. Reid: I can assure my hon. Friend that I will keep the situation under review. We have only recently made an additional allocation that I hope assists in that direction, not least because of the efforts made by the hospitals in Milton Keynes. My hon. Friend will know that we have met our targets to abolish 18-month, 15-month and 12-month waits. Our target now is to go ahead and abolish nine-month waits, on our way to eliminating six-month waits, on our way to reaching a target of a maximum of three months by 2008. I am glad to tell the House that, in Milton Keynes, there have been no breaches of the 12-month target for over a year. I fully expect that there will be equal success in eliminating nine-month waits.

Mr. Nigel Evans (Ribble Valley) (Con): Whether the Secretary of State likes it or not, being at the heart of Europe means that we have to take on the working time directive. How many extra staff will be needed post-1 August to ensure that waiting lists and times do not spiral out of control? Are there any specialties where we are having more difficulty in recruiting? Will we have to scour the world again for nurses and doctors to ensure that those waiting times and lists do not increase?

Dr. Reid: First, I thank the hon. Gentleman for the congratulations to NHS staff on achieving the reductions in waiting times that I am sure he would have given in his question had he time. Secondly, enormous efforts are being made to make sure that we can balance fairness to staff, through the working time directive, with the continuation of services to patients. A word of caution; to use expressions such as "scouring the world" in relation to the many members of NHS staff who, over the last 60 years, have come here and provided marvellous health care to the people of this country is to do those staff less than justice, despite the Conservative party's intrinsic dislike of foreigners.

Lawrie Quinn (Scarborough and Whitby) (Lab): Given the welcome and encouraging earlier answer from my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State, does he share my concern about a leaflet being circulated by BUPA Heartbeat personal health plan that is well out of date, by over two years, and claims that well over 1 million people are currently waiting for an operation? Does he agree that BUPA needs better information and must get up to date, and that in trying to put facts into the public domain, it should not rely on past propaganda?
 
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Dr. Reid: I do not want to make any comment about any particular private care operator. [Hon. Members: "Go on."] I genuinely do not, because, Mr. Speaker, you will have read in the Financial Times and other newspapers recently that the NHS is now beginning to improve not only itself, but the whole of the health market. If anyone has a publication that says that more than 1 million people are on waiting lists, those concerned are way out of date; they are obviously thinking of the last Government. We now have considerably fewer than that figure and have had for each of the last 12 months. I suppose that by the time they reprinted the leaflet with today's waiting list figures, it would be out of date, such is the rate of reduction in waiting lists and waiting times.

Hywel Williams (Caernarfon) (PC): Can the Secretary of State confirm that the NHS in England has had to bail out the Labour-run Welsh Assembly Government with extra hospital places? Despite the Secretary of State's heroic efforts, however, because of that Government's incompetence more than 6,000 people in Wales are still waiting for a first out-patient appointment, 8,500 have waited 12 months for their first in-patient treatment and 1,401 pour souls are still waiting more than 18 months for in-patient treatment in Wales.

Dr. Reid: In all the time that I was a territorial Secretary of State I never had a compliment from a nationalist, and it is nice to receive one today. However, I am afraid that I cannot respond to the hon. Gentleman's point because figures for the Welsh health service are outwith my responsibility.

Schoolchildren

13. Bob Russell (Colchester) (LD): What recent discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Education and Skills about the health of schoolchildren. [169835]

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health (Miss Melanie Johnson): My right hon. Friends the Secretaries of State for Health and for Education and Skills meet regularly to discuss a wide range of issues about the health, social care and education of children.

Bob Russell : Will the Minister confirm that for the first time in 100 years life expectancy is falling, because today's schoolchildren are less fit and healthy than their parents, grandparents and great-grandparents were at the same age? With that in mind, if we are to have a national health service rather than a national sickness service, will she work better with the Department for Education and Skills to ensure that our children have a minimum of two hours' physical education in the school curriculum?

Miss Johnson: The hon. Gentleman has got that wrong. First, life expectancy is continuing to extend and, secondly, we work very closely with the Department for Education and Skills on all sorts of aspects of health in schools and matters that relate to the health of young children. In addition, I point out to the hon. Gentleman that we have a major consultation
 
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under way. I agree with him that obesity is a major issue, but that is why we are having the consultation, with a view to publishing a White Paper on public health during the summer. That consultation is open until 28 May, and I look forward to receiving the hon. Gentleman's remarks.

Mr. Mark Todd (South Derbyshire) (Lab): I am sure that the Minister agrees with me that one critical aspect of improving the health of schoolchildren is encouraging the eating of fresh fruit. I am sure that she shares my constituency experience of encountering widespread enthusiasm for the adoption of the fruit in schools programme, which this Government have pushed forward. However, does she share my wish that the current programme, which is confined to key stage 1 except where a school chooses to extend it, should be extended to key stage 2 children, many of whom are very envious of what is being offered to key stage 1 children?

Miss Johnson: I obviously share my hon. Friend's enthusiasm for the fruit in schools programme, which is encouraging infant children to eat more fruit both in and out of school. It has been shown that 25 per cent. more of them are eating fruit outside school and that 50 per cent. of families are recognising the value of fruit and vegetables in a healthy diet. That is why we are rolling out the programme across the country, at a cost of £77 million. We will evaluate the programme, and I will bear my hon. Friend's remarks in mind when we do that.

Chris Grayling (Epsom and Ewell) (Con): Central to that issue is childhood obesity. On Thursday, the Minister will chair a summit on obesity, a sure sign if ever there was one of Government policy failure. Can she tell us what her plans for that summit are, whether the Department for Education and Skills is involved in it and why, if it is a serious event, she needs a television presenter to chair it?

Miss Johnson: We have been discussing all those matters widely with the DFES, and part of Thursday's event is to ensure that we are feeding the views of a wide range of people into the public health consultation that I mentioned a moment ago.

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