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Health Care in London

I find it very unconvincing when I hear a Tory Front Bencher speaking in favour of reducing health inequalities. When we came to power in 1997, each part of the country was supposed to be allocated health service funds that reflected the size, nature and health of their population, but the east end of London was getting 23 per cent. less than it was entitled to, and surprise, surprise, Tory Surrey was getting 23 per cent. more than it was entitled to. That is entirely typical of what the Tories have always done. In my constituency, investment under the Labour Government has been quite dramatic. We have the new University College hospital, which I freely admit got under way when I was Health Secretary; and we have also had big improvements at the Royal Free hospital, which serves my area, and at Great Ormond Street hospital, which serves children from across the country. We have new health centres, with two in Kentish Town and one that has just reopened in Gospel Oak; most GP premises have been improved; and the survival rates and general performance in our area have massively improved because the buildings and equipment have at long last started to match the excellence of the staff. As part of that, there has been a lot of investment in the Whittington hospital. I can remember, when I was in opposition, going to the Whittington and pledging all sorts of things. As I believe in keeping pledges, those pledges have been kept, and a lot of extra money has been invested in the Whittington. I could not get firm figures from the hospital today, but as I understand it £27 million was invested in the new accident and emergency department, so my hon. Friends and I find it slightly bizarre—to say the least—that nameless, faceless people have suddenly appeared on the scene and decided to recommend that the A and E department, in which all that money has been invested, no longer function, and that instead people be diverted to the Royal Free and University College hospitals. I checked this morning at University College hospital. It was designed for 60,000 A and E attendees, and it now has knocking on for 90,000, so Lord only knows where the 90,000 people who use the Whittington will go. Apparently, the explanation is that many would go to clinics—new health centres—in Islington. The only trouble is that they have not been built, and it will cost money to build them. So if the closure is being undertaken to save money, it is utterly stupid because it will involve spending money to substitute for the money that has already been spent at the Whittington.