National Health Service Hospitals

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 5:27 pm on 26 November 1987.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Mr Terry Davis Mr Terry Davis , Birmingham, Hodge Hill 5:27, 26 November 1987

If the Minister will wait a moment I shall give him the figures for Birmingham, which are taken from the Official Report, so he cannot deny them.

We must consider the effects of new techniques and of being able to treat people who could not be treated before. The budget for the Health Service must be increased nationally by 2 per cent, every year in real terms. What is happening in Birmingham is clear from the Department's figures. The Minister's comments are in the Official Report. She told us that in the three years from 1982–83 to 1985–86 — I am not going back to the Labour Government; I am referring to this Government's tenure of office — which is a reasonable period, more money had gone into the Birmingham Health Service. That is true, but the increase over those three years was only 2·9 per cent in real terms. Those are her figures. However, 2 per cent a year for three years means that the increase should have been 6·1 per cent. On the Minister's own figures, the shortfall in Birmingham, let alone the west midlands, is 3·2 per cent, which is more than £8 million. The Government cannot deny the figures. That is a real cut in resources as a result of demographic change and new techniques.

On top of that, money has not been provided for nurses' wages. In my experience, the nurses bitterly resent the way in which Ministers take credit for the increase in nurses' wages, when the fact is that the Government have failed, neglected and refused to provide the money to pay such extra wages. They have left it to the health authorities to fund increased wages at the expense of patient care, and the nurses know it. That is robbing Peter to pay Paul, too. That is the truth. That is why the chairman of the regional health authority — the Government's own chairman; their political appointee — Sir James Ackers, said that the crisis in the west midlands is largely the result of the Government underfunding pay increases for nurses and other staff.

The five community health councils in Birmingham have calculated that the extent of that underfunding because of technological change, demographic change and pay awards, from 1982–83 to 1986–87, totals £17 million. Is it surprising that each district health authority is having to choose which beds and wards to close, to say which patients cannot be treated, and which doctors must be told that they will be dismissed if they treat another patient? That is the situation in Birmingham at the moment.

Referring to the level of health services in Birmingham a year ago, the community health councils have calculated that they need £10 million. That is not going back to the Labour Government — it is not even going back five years—it is going back to last year. We need £10 million new money, not £10 million taken from some other part of an already poorly funded Health Service. We need £10 million just to take the Health Service back to where it was before the general election.

Ministers must take responsibility for that. When we see Ministers, they send us to the regional health authority. When we see the chairman of the regional health authority, he sends us to the district health authority. When we see the chairman of the district health authority, he sends us back to the regional health authority. In fact, the buck stops with the Minister for Health because there are only two alternatives: either not enough money is being given to the Health Service, or the people who are running it are spending it badly. It is either underfunding or it is overspending — one or the other. If it is overspending, the Minister should sack the chairman of the regional health authority, and the chairman of the regional health authority should sack the members of the district health authority. That has not happened because the chairman of the regional health authority knows that he is not giving enough money to the districts and the Minister has not sacked the chairman of the regional health authority — instead he has given him a knighthood—because the Minister knows that he is not giving enough money to the regional health authority. That is the truth of the matter. The Government will not provide the money.

In the Government's scale of priorities, tax cuts come before the National Health Service. I have yet to meet anybody—Labour or Conservative—who will put a tax cut before an increase in funds for the National Health Service. That is the charge that we make to the Government — not that they have not given more money, but that they have not given enough money. They have not given the Health Service as much money as the people want them to give. If that means that they have not taxed the people of this country enough, so be it; the logic is there.

People in my constituency and in Birmingham believe that the Health Service is in a state of collapse. It is the Minister's responsibility.