Public Expenditure (Scotland)

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 3:32 pm on 13 December 1988.

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Photo of Mr Ernie Ross Mr Ernie Ross , Dundee West 3:32, 13 December 1988

The Secretary of State must know that we cannot run the National Health Service in fits and starts. If he is to have these bursts of enthusiasm and give more money to tackle waiting lists, because he genuinely wants to tackle the problem, he must realise that, when he last gave money for that purpose, many health authorities were constrained by the fact that they did not have the proper back-up facilities to take advantage of those additional funds. We do not want bursts of enthusiasm; we want sustained, necessary expenditure in the health services to allow them to build up teams around the surgical teams that he claims to want to help.

Will he also answer the question posed by my hon. Friend the member for Glasgow, Garscadden (Mr. Dewar) relating to the fact that part of the money comes from the salary cuts that are being borne by those Health Service employees who are now the employees of private companies?