---

Health Inequalities

No. At the end of the month, the commission will be abolished, and the parliamentary health ombudsman will take over the complaints procedure. All too often as I go around the country, I see ambulances sitting outside A and E; patients are not being accepted because hospitals are worried about the four-hour target. [Interruption.] The hon. Member for Wigan may not believe me, but I was in Birmingham recently with the West Midlands ambulance service, and the chief executive will confirm that ambulances regularly have to wait outside A and E. I was in London ambulance control centre only two months ago, and there was a capacity problem in Romford; 12 ambulances were stuck outside while I was at the centre. It happens. It may not happen in Wigan, and it may not happen in Stockton, but it is happening elsewhere in the country, and it is affecting the outcome for our constituents. That problem has to be addressed. I completely agree with something that all hon. Members who have contributed to the debate, including the hon. Member for Southport, have said, namely that we must try to separate the acute medical care and public health budgets. So often, PCTs set up public health budgets, so that they can work on the long-term inequalities within our communities, but when things get tough and money becomes tight—it seems to happen often in the constituencies that we have heard about today—those budgets are raided. If the public health budget is raided this year, the knock-on effect will last for generations, yet it is happening all the time. I believe that that is due partly to the targets—some bodies are 6 or 7 per cent. behind. Our constituents and patients do not care about that. What they want is treatment as close to home as possible that is safe and free at the point of delivery. That is a commitment that we must all make. Yes, the funding formula has to be changed. Yes, we have to address inequalities within our communities. I urge those who have not yet read the Health Committee’s report to do so. It is not a Conservative-led Committee, but its report into health inequalities is scathing.