---

Secretary of State for Health

I am told by doctors in accident and emergency departments that they follow protocols in those circumstances. If necessary, my notes could be e-mailed from another part of the country. In 2000, we had the NHS plan, part of which was to create 100 new hospitals by 2010. That was a very ambitious programme, but it was to be funded using PFI—a massive, uncosted commitment that will drain the NHS of resources long into the future. It is mortgaging our future and putting the NHS in a straitjacket of serviced accommodation. At the very time when Ministers are telling us that we must be flexible, that we must adapt to changing methods of delivering health care, and that we must shift care away from acute hospitals to care for people closer to home, we are stuck with the centralised provision of highly expensive serviced accommodation.