Community Hospitals

Part of the debate – in Westminster Hall at 3:19 pm on 24 May 2006.

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Photo of David Drew David Drew Labour, Stroud 3:19, 24 May 2006

I take careful note of what you say, Mr. Bercow. I will keep my remarks as brief as possible.

I congratulate Peter Viggers. I, like him, want to talk about local problems. That is the best way to approach the difficult debate on how we can save our community hospitals and enhance our community services. I have a series of questions for my hon. Friend the Minister that relates largely to how "Our health, our care, our say" is to be implemented, about which the hon. Gentleman spoke.

I am the fortunate possessor of a document that was sent to all strategic health authority chief executives and directors of performance. It is a public document, so I am in no way leaking information, and it is entitled "Moving care closer to home". It takes up two sides of paper, which is wonderful, because the issue does not need to be spelled out any more clearly, and it highlights community hospitals. I shall read two paragraphs from it:

"In many parts of the country, community hospitals are an important part of the strategy of moving care closer to home. This vision for the future of community hospitals was set out in chapter 6 of the White Paper and the new generation of community hospitals could be either new or refurbished existing facilities. Further guidance will be available in the summer."

It would be nice to hear from the Minister when that further guidance will come. The letter goes on:

"Where reconfiguration proposals of existing community hospitals relate to facilities that are clinically not viable, or which local people do not want to use, or which cannot economically be raised to modern standards, then local reconfiguration is right but we need to ensure that all such proposals are consistent with the long term strategy of the White Paper to move care closer to patients' homes. This is why the White Paper makes a commitment that"— this is the important bit—

"'PCTs taking current decisions about the future of community hospitals will be required to demonstrate to their SHA that they have consulted locally and have considered options such as developing new pathways, new partnerships and new ownership possibilities. SHAs will then test PCT community hospital proposals against the principles of this White Paper.' (para 6.43)"

That is an important mechanism for primary care trusts, and in Gloucestershire all the trusts are facing cuts as a result of problems that I would argue are not of our making. [Interruption.] Well, that is not entirely true of my own primary care trust; I shall be very careful. However, I have always argued that it was wrong to create three primary care trusts in Gloucestershire; there should have been two, and we are now moving to one. Cotswold and Vale primary care trust—my local PCT, which I share with Mr. Clifton-Brown—was created with a deficit. That deficit has not got any worse; the problem is that we are in the strategic health authority from hell, and I look at Steve Webb as I say that. It is continually overspent, and I could share some of my problems with Dr. Murrison as well.

It is because of those problems that Gloucestershire, which has largely kept in balance, is being penalised. It is being asked to make good some of the problems of the strategic health authority and to come into balance very quickly. There is an argument going on—and I shall advance it with the Secretary of State—about how quickly we are expected to get into balance. That is a key debate, but I shall not say much more about that now. In my area, there is a proposal to shut Berkeley hospital. That proposal has been round the circuit before, but it is being eagerly progressed now.