I am grateful to you, Madam Speaker, for allowing me to put my case to the House. Late last night I became aware of a police investigation into four suspicious deaths in the adult intensive care ward of the Royal Victoria Infirmary trust in my Constituency. The unit serves a wide area of the northern region. It has been known to be under intense work load pressure for several years—pressure which neither the trust nor the regional health authority has dealt with.

The pressure on the children's intensive care unit is worse still. Young people are often referred to the adult unit, thereby adding to the pressure on it; unfortunately, one of the deaths under investigation is that of a very young teenager.

The Minister must come to the House to tell us how he proposes to inquire into the crisis in intensive care beds in the northern region. I hope that he will also tell us how he proposes to inquire into other matters that raise serious doubts about the competence and good judgment of the trust management.

Why, for instance, has it taken four years for one of these suspicious deaths to come to light? This is a major high-tech teaching hospital. Why was it left to the coroner to call in the police? What was the quality of the trust's legal advice? Why did it take five weeks from the initial complaints for the coroner to be called in? Why did it take a fortnight after the internal inquiry had identified four suspicious deaths and sacked a nursing sister for the coroner to be called in?

This smacks of weakness, confusion and cover-up. There are matters here which no police investigation, however thorough, can deal with. The Minister must come to the House and set up an independent public inquiry into the situation at the hospital right now.

I should perhaps add that I have often been a visitor and a patient at the hospital, which has also served my family. I raise the matter not because I want to denigrate the hospital but because I wish to restore its good name and good reputation.