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Summer Adjournment

Like the hon. Member for South Derbyshire (Mr. Todd), I shall concentrate primarily on a local issue, but never having taken part in one of these end-of-term debates before, it is a great pleasure to hear such a variety of topics raised under a rather arcane procedure. As I understand it, every speaker so far has pledged to vote against the Adjournment, and as the whole of the House is on a one-line Whip, the Government might lose the vote. I wait with bated breath to see how this works. I would like to pick out two issues raised so far. First, it is remarkable that there is such cross-party concern about the so-called reform treaty of the European Union. The referendum campaign is gathering pace; it goes far beyond those who might be described as the usual suspects. I particularly welcome the comments of the hon. Member for Birmingham, Edgbaston (Ms Stuart), who pointed out that the Government seem to brand as some sort of extremist anyone who raises any objection about any of the treaties, when in fact, the points that she raised, and those raised by the hon. Member for Vauxhall (Kate Hoey), were reasonable. The hon. Member for Portsmouth, South (Mr. Hancock) declared himself in favour of a referendum, which demonstrates that one does not need to be a Eurosceptic to be in favour of one. It is incumbent on the Deputy Leader of the House to explain not why the treaty is a marginally different arrangement—that the constitution has been dropped and replaced by an amending treaty—but the substantial difference between the effect of the constitutional treaty and what is now proposed. If she can explain that, she might begin to explain why it was right to have a referendum on the constitutional treaty and why it is wrong to have one on this new arrangement. I suspect that she cannot begin to explain that because the effect of the reformed treaty is almost identical, if not actually identical, to the previous one. It is dishonest to pretend that there should not be a referendum, and that there is not as strong a case for a referendum as there was before, as conceded by the Prime Minister. The other point I wish to pick up on relates to the comments of the hon. Member for Keighley (Mrs. Cryer) about the problems of returning officers and the management of modernised election processes. Our returning officers have been grossly overloaded with far too much change. They are overburdened, especially by the postal voting problem. I have received a letter from the returning officer in each of my districts expressing deep concern. Both complain that there is insufficient print capacity to handle the postal voting in a general election. People complained about late postal votes at the local elections, when half the numbers who vote in general elections turn out. When we have a general election or a referendum, the system will be grossly overstretched, especially with the additional requirement for personal verification of every vote and matching the signatures on the electoral register with those that come in with the postal votes. It is far too big a logistical problem and there are not enough competent printers to deal with the print load that is required almost all on one day throughout the country. Unless the Government tackle that, the next general election will be beset by the same problems that led a judge in previous local elections in Birmingham to say that our system was the equivalent of that of a banana republic. I want to concentrate briefly on the closure of a GP surgery in my constituency. In recent months, I have applied for an Adjournment debate on the topic and I make no apology for raising the matter today. Dedham in my constituency has an elderly population, many people without cars and no public transport infrastructure. In 2002, it was announced that the general practice outpost in the village would close. General practice services have been provided in there for more than 100 years. Although there was a stay of execution, the facility has now closed. The key point is that a neighbouring practice in a neighbouring primary care trust provided services. A bureaucratic log jam then resulted in what amounts to a dispute between two health authorities as they try—or do not try—to resolve the matter. Constable practice, which provided the services, is in East Bergholt in Suffolk in the constituency of my hon. Friend the Member for South Suffolk (Mr. Yeo), and Dedham is part of North East Essex PCT. The news of the closure provoked an outcry and a substantial campaign. The Dedham patients steering group was established to save GP facilities in the village. It mobilised the community and persuaded a local landowner generously to provide some green land—developers call it white land—as a site for building some social housing in conjunction with the Colne Housing Society, which is a housing association. A new GP surgery is piggybacked on the development. It was part funded by the East of England Development Agency to the tune of £95,000 and by Essex county council’s communities fund in the expectation that the local NHS would agree, as it said it would, to continue to provide GP services. Constable practice then broke its promise. It pains me to say this, but my comments reflect huge local frustration: the North East Essex PCT has been more obstructive than helpful. There is much good will and financial commitment from the local community. There are ways in which to reduce the premises costs to make the additional cost to the NHS of providing satellite services from another GP practice marginal. I have raised the matter with the strategic health authority and North East Essex PCT. I warned them that, if the problem was not resolved, there would be a row. I am now prepared to have that row. I can only describe the letter that I first received from Dr. Paul Zollinger-Read of the North East Essex primary care trust as rubbish. He told me:"““There is no agreed mechanism for the transfer””" of money from the Suffolk primary care trust to the North East Essex primary care trust. That is perfectly true, but that was not a reason for giving up. He explained that if 1,000 patients transferred to a north-east Essex GP practice run on a satellite service, that would cost the NHS £330,000. However, that ignores the fact that cheap premises had been provided and that the NHS as a whole has to bear the costs of treating those patients anyway. The additional cost is much less. Dr. Zollinger-Read then explained that life expectancy in Dedham is 82.3 years, as opposed to other areas, where it is as low as 70.1 years, as though that were an argument for making 80-year-old people travel further for their general practice services—in this case miles and miles further, to a neighbouring village. In fact, he simply highlighted the need for continuing the GP services promised to the people of Dedham, a higher proportion of whom are elderly and live longer, through no fault of their own. Moreover, surprising as it may seem, the Jarman underprivileged area index, which is a standard measurement of deprivation, shows that Dedham is by no means the most privileged part of my constituency. Indeed, it is more than halfway down the list of wards in my constituency. Therefore, it should be treated more fairly. I also received a copy of a letter to the primary care trust from the Riverside health centre, which is a neighbouring GP practice in Manningtree. The proposal is for the Riverside health centre to operate satellite services in the new building at a much lower cost than was quoted by the primary care trust. I am simply not satisfied that the proposal has been considered in good faith. The letter says:"““We are extremely excited about the possibility of extending our practice boundaries to include Dedham and would look favourably on staffing the new building at Dedham...We would be prepared to open our list to Dedham patients, subject to ""agreement with the relevant authorities and subject to successful negotiation we could undertake to staff the new premises at completion.””" The Riverside health centre has made it clear that from as little as between £30,000 and £40,000 a year, with up-front start-up costs of around £30,000, at least a part-time service could be provided on the premises. I do not know why the health authority has been so obstructive. One problem is that, because the proposal depends on the transfer of people from one authority to another, some of the capitation payment will be lost. Ministers should address that issue, and I hope that the health authorities will support me in my representations to them to resolve the issue.