Clause 15
Health Bill [Lords]
12:15 pm
John Pugh (Southport, Liberal Democrat)
I have some sympathy with the amendment. While the Minister was speaking, I was thinking of scenarios in which, for example, the Secretary of State might judge that decisions are not being made for the best configuration of health services. For instance, there might be a need to close down a maternity wing because it is not sufficiently subscribed to by local mums. The hospital might decide to preserve the maternity wing in response to local opinion, but the Secretary of State could take a harder line, and he would obviously be free politically to do so. While the Secretary of State might deem it appropriate to intervene in such a scenario, I get the sense that the general intention of the measure is to deal only with conditions of chronic failure, not to override local autonomy. It might be helpful if the Minister put that on record.