Schedule 1 - Schedule 7a to be inserted in the
Health (Wales) Bill
12:00 pm
Mr Nigel Evans (Ribble Valley, Conservative)
That is why the amendment is to paragraph 1 of new schedule 7A, as opposed to paragraph 2. The amendment seeks to impose a duty on a council
''to publish an annual report on the level and quality of the health services in its area.''
It would override paragraph 2(i), which refers to
''matters to be included in any such report''.
That would mean that the Welsh Assembly could decide what would and would not go in the report, because that is the advice in the schedule. With the amendment, even if the Assembly did not think it a priority, CHCs would know that they were required to publish a report; as the patients' champions, I am sure that they would.
I can understand Jane Hutt being irritated by a report that highlights a lack of provision in the NHS over which she presides, and she might not think that a report needs to be produced on why the hon. Members for Caernarfon and for Monmouth are having difficulty in finding an NHS dentist. The amendment, however, would place CHCs under a duty to publish such a report. I hope that those hon. Members will get in touch with their local CHCs and ask them to investigate the lack of dentistry in their areas and include their findings in a report.
The hon. Member for Brecon and Radnorshire asked whether a report would make any difference. I hope that it would. To return to the issue of the monopoly provider, there is increasing private dentistry provision, but I believe that a sizeable proportion of people in Wales want NHS provision. After all, they pay into the NHS through national insurance; they will pay an extra 1 per cent. from April. Indeed, local authorities will pay an extra 1 per cent. for their employees, which will lead to higher council taxes, so people will be paying again. They will ask why they cannot have their teeth done by an NHS dentist. I hope that the Minister agrees that this is a sensible amendment, not a wrecking amendment.
Jane Hutt may not be especially grateful for scrutiny of other areas of the health service, such as waiting lists, for which the amendment would provide. I shall not repeat the speech that I made on Second Reading, when I reflected on several areas in which there are real problems. However, we know that problems arise in certain areas from time to time. We will always find problems in a health service the size of the NHS in the UK. For example, the scarcity of consultants and surgeons in certain areas is a problem. The scarcity of nurses is another problem; that is the reason why we are scouring countries where there are a surplus of nurses and trying to attract them here.
The hon. Member for Cardiff, Central mentioned bed blocking in connection with the Plaid Cymru spokesman on the health service in Wales. It has been mentioned that more than 1,000 patients are blocking NHS beds in Wales, and the approach of fining local authorities for not freeing up beds has been questioned. We will see what happens. Bed blocking
concerns us all, including CHCs. If fines are used as a tool to free up beds in NHS hospitals in Wales, beds may become more available. Those 1,000 beds could then be used for people who need treatment. One thing we do know, however, is that two people do not share a bed. The Government may be thinking of introducing such a proposal, but that is not yet done and a bed can be used for only person. CHCs may wish to raise that in their annual report and, indeed, in some sub-reports.