Welsh Affairs

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 7:21 pm on 28 February 1991.

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Photo of Mr Gwilym Jones Mr Gwilym Jones , Cardiff North 7:21, 28 February 1991

I will not go down any horseracing tracks.

My hon. Friend the Member for Cardiff, Central pointed out that the statistics on health provision in Wales are almost mind-boggling. Spending in real terms is up by 55 per cent., numbers of nurses and midwives are up by 25 per cent., the number of general practitioners is up by 23 per cent., the number of hospital doctors is up by 17 per cent., the number of consultants is up by 26 per cent., and the number of dentists is up by 30 per cent. I stop to ask what is being achieved by the increases in spending and by all the extra health professionals.

The most important statistics about health provision must be the benefit that they have for the people of Wales. My right hon. Friend gave us the latest figures. It is interesting to reflect on the improvements in the numbers of patients treated. My right hon. Friend said that last year there were 472,000 in-patients: in 1979, that figure was only 314,000. The statistics for out-patients are similar, with almost 2·3 million last year compared with only 1·8 million in 1979. There has been an even more staggering increase in day patients: there were 95,000 last year, compared with only 31,000 in 1979.

The statistics are significant. In total, almost 750,000 more people per year are being treated. On an individual basis, for every three people treated by the NHS today, only two would have been treated in 1979. That is not just today, but tomorrow, the day after and every other day. That is the scale of the increase. Surely health provision is about ensuring that patients are treated. Those figures are most important, as they show that many more patients are being treated.

I do not dismiss the significance of waiting lists. The Welsh Office should ensure that waiting lists are reduced as much and as widely as possible. But the very success of the health service generates waiting lists. Treatments are available now that were not readily available a few years ago. There was no point queueing up for treatments that were not provided. The fact that they are now being provided and are being provided so well encourages waiting lists. Therefore, the mere consideration of waiting lists is not of the greatest relevance.

I am interested in transplants, particularly kidney transplants. I am not complaining, but I am impatient for more progress. I have long been interested in the subject, and for a few years I have been one of the vice-presidents of the Kidney Research Unit Foundation for Wales.

Wales has a good record in the treatment of kidney patients and that was brought home to the House in 1986 when my hon. Friend the Member for Stockport (Mr. Favell) introduced a ten-minute Bill entitled Kidney Dialysis (Elimination of Waiting Lists) Bill. That sought to impose on England the very practices already adopted in Wales. An English Member of Parliament said that, if only England did what Wales was already doing, England could reduce its waiting list for kidney treatment.

My hon. Friend introduced his Bill against the background of the latest renal units in Wales at Carmarthen and Bangor. Since then, kidney treatments have been extended by new units at Cardiff and Merthyr, with which I believe my hon. Friend the Member for Cardiff, Central was involved. On 21 May 1990, a further two units were announced at Wrexham and Newport. I should be most interested to hear what further progress has been made on those units when my hon. Friend the Minister of State replies, or perhaps he would like to write to me.