National Health Service

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 15 July 1959.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Mrs Mary McAlister Mrs Mary McAlister , Glasgow Kelvingrove 12:00, 15 July 1959

As I was saying, we have heard a lot about the revolutionary changes in public health since the advent of the National Health Service. Even if I sat on the Government benches—which heaven forbid—I could not deny a word of that. There is no doubt about it. It is not long since I told the Scottish Standing Committee of the revolutionary changes which I have seen in my lifetime, such as the virtual disappearance of diphtheria and the changes in the treatment of tuberculosis, pneumonia, and so on.

I was also interested to hear the Minister of Health refer to nursing as a calling when he was dealing with the improvement in the recruitment of nurses. There is no doubt that nursing is a calling. Unfortunately, however, this fact has been used as the basis for exploitation of the profession over a large number of years and ultimately it did the profession a great deal of damage. Because service cannot fully be paid for in money, it does not follow automatically that the minimum of money need be paid for it. We are glad that there is now at least a step in the right direction concerning the remuneration of nurses and midwives. Those are the comments that I particularly wanted the Minister to hear me say.

Although I have always had a great aversion to repetition and to saying anything that has been said over and over again, I am unable to make any apology for returning to the serious matters affecting public health in my own city of Glasgow. Year after year, in the annual reports of the medical officer of health, attention has been drawn to the serious—indeed, tragic—shortage of maternity beds in Glasgow. "Tragic" is not too strong a word to use—it certainly is not an unfair word to use—if we take account of the infant mortality figures of Glasgow. In the natural order of things, these figures should be falling. Far from showing any decline, however, last year they were actually up. They stood then as the highest in Scotland and by far the highest among comparable cities in Britain.

The serious disadvantages that Glasgow suffers have been frequently referred to and are clearly reflected in the percentage figures of mothers who are unable to have their babies in hospital. Only 63·5 per cent. of Glasgow mothers have this facility, as against no less than 91·4 per cent. in Aberdeen. There is room for difference of opinion as to the advisability of all mothers having their children in hospital. Not even obstetricians and gynaecologists are agreed about this, as was made clear to me when giving evidence before the maternity committee about a couple of years ago.

Other things being equal, or anything like equal, I do not say that all mothers should have their children in hospital—I am not qualified to do so. I am dealing not with a medical matter, but with a social question. Housing conditions over large areas of Glasgow are such that there could not possibly be any two opinions as to where mothers from certain areas of Glasgow should have their babies.

It is only a few weeks ago that the Minister agreed with me that housing in certain areas of Glasgow constituted a public scandal. He was widely quoted to that effect in several Glasgow papers. The Report on maternity services drew attention to another result of bed shortage in the city, that is, the necessity to discharge patients much earlier than they should be discharged. The Report stated that while a ten-day period was desirable, indeed, was necessary, discharge in seven or eight days was fairly common. To be fair, however, the Report stated that some gynaecologists and obstetricians think that with the present shortage of beds, more admissions and shorter stays would be preferable. The witnesses from the Royal College of Nursing, however, who probably know more about social conditions than anybody else, said that the discharge of mothers before the tenth day made it much more difficult to establish good feeding habits and to get mothers into the right routine, and, in addition, placed a terrible strain upon the domiciliary services.

The Secretary of State for Scotland said in answer to a Question only the other day that it was not within his knowledge that there was a general shortage of domiciliary midwives. That is not my information, and I am in fairly close touch with those who should know. I know that the Royal College of Mid-wives is presently engaged in compiling evidence on the whole question of mid-wives in Scotland and hopes shortly to meet the Minister on this very matter and to put before him the state of affairs regarding domiciliary midwives in Scotland.

What kind of response have we had so far to Questions on this subject? We have been told in a vague sort of way that progress is being made in Glasgow. I do not blame the Minister for being vague, because things are not progressing at all, or, if they are, the progress is so slow that nobody in Glasgow seems to notice it.

As I have said before, I do not want to harass the Minister or anyone else, but what are the facts? The proposed increases in maternity accommodation in Glasgow are fifteen additional beds in Redlands, twenty additional beds in Robroyston and the conversion of pavilions at Belvedere Fever Hospital to give fifty beds. This additional accommodation, however, will not be ready until the end of 1960. With regard to Yorkhill Hospital, at which it is proposed to build a maternity hospital, the piling of the site begins this autumn, and, according to somebody who ought to know, it would appear that the hospital will be ready in about five years from now.

The new hospital is to accommodate 112 patients, but the accommodation at Lennox Castle, which has approximately 80 ante-natal and lying-in beds, must be offset against this because, we understand in Glasgow, the beds at present being used for maternity purposes in Lennox Castle are to revert to their original purposes for mental defectives. I do not say that this is correct. I simply put it to the Minister. I understand that these units will be closed. There is one gynaecological unit there which, I presume, will also be given back for the accommodation of the mentally handicapped.

I want the Minister seriously to consider these figures which I have given. The medical officer of health for Glasgow and everybody connected with child welfare and maternity in Glasgow are seriously concerned about the position. I know that the Minister has a great deal to do and that he cannot know everything. I do not know who is advising him on the question of maternity services in Glasgow, but he has certainly been ill-advised. I implore him to look at these figures and to find out whether what I am saying is correct. I am positive that it is correct. I have a fairly long experience of maternity services in Glasgow. I served on the Health Committee for a great number of years and was its chairman for three years and I know something about the conditions in the city.

I have already drawn the attention of the House of Commons to the housing conditions in the constituency which I represent. I tried not to be dramatic, but I pointed out that in some of the houses the people had become so accustomed to rats on the premises that they did not complain unless the rats got really cheeky, such as facing up to the cat, as, in one case, they are said to have done. That illustrates the condition of housing in some parts of my constituency. I implore the Minister to look into this matter, if only because I am continually being harassed by officials, by mothers and by all sorts of persons in the constituency and throughout Glasgow on account of the state of affairs in the Glasgow maternity services.

The same degree of complacency, I am sorry to say, seems to exist in regard to geriatric beds. When the famous X-ray drives were in the offing, we were told over and over again that when the beds were evacuated by tuberculosis patients they would be available for other purposes. We have been told over and over again that this, that and the other place is not suitable as a hospital for old people.

Nobody will tell me that any hospital bed or any hospital ward in the City of Glasgow, or even in the precincts of the City of Glasgow, however primitive, is less suitable for old people than some of the places in which they are presently living in Glasgow. Nobody will tell me that, because I simply will not take it in. Apart from that, a geriatric specialist told me only about four months ago that the closing of any beds at this time was quite unjustified.

We have been told today by the Minister—I do not know whether it applies to Scotland or not—that nursing recruitment has been speeded up. I am very glad to hear that. I gather that that cannot be put forward as an excuse for closing beds. It may have been a legitimate excuse at one time that we could not find the staff, but that is no excuse at this moment.

I implore the Secretary of State to look at these figures and to find out for himself whether what I am saying about the City of Glasgow is true.