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Business of the House

First, there have probably been more opportunities to debate aspects of the NHS than any other issue, and that will continue to be the case. The right hon. Lady says that those opportunities arise on Opposition days, but I remind her that almost a whole day of legislative time next week is devoted to NHS Bills. The hon. Member for Macclesfield (Sir Nicholas Winterton) is very adept at making sure that his remarks are in order when it comes to anything that has the label ““NHS”” attached to it. Of course I understand the concerns that arise in communities when there are changes in the arrangements for NHS facilities, but we must do more than shout at each other about the matter. We need to have a serious conversation, which must acknowledge that, in cash terms, spending on the NHS has almost trebled since 1997 and that, in real terms, it has doubled. Moreover, the total number of staff has increased by 300,000, there have been substantial rises in the numbers of clinical staff in every constituency, and outputs are also improving. At the same time, changes in medical practice mean that fewer have to stay in hospital, with more people being day-care cases. While those changes will not affect the improvement in outputs or in morbidity and mortality rates, they will affect how the NHS is delivered on the ground.