Clause 22
Greater London Authority Bill
2:15 pm
Siobhain McDonagh (PPS (Rt Hon John Reid, Secretary of State), Home Office; Mitcham and Morden, Labour)
I wholeheartedly agree with my hon. Friend. Unlike what appears to be the direction of travel of the Front Benches of the Government and the Opposition, I believe that there is need for a greater democratisation of the health service, not less. If people democratically had responsibility for the health service, our hospitals would not sometimes be dirty, but always clean, because that would determine the life of the elected officials or politicians and whether they were going to be re-elected or not. I appreciate that that is a radical view for this particular matter, but I believe that the clause is a step in the right direction. I urge my Government to consider allowing the Mayor to have responsibility for considering all hospital reconfigurations, because of London’s densely populated nature and the huge impact that a decision made miles away can have on everyone’s health service.