Kingston Hospital: Minister speaks

The Health and Hospitals page has been updated to include sections from the recent House of Commons debate featuring the Kingston Hospital scare. The section follows Helen Whately’s letter. The source is Hansard.

The debate concluded:

Mike O’Brien: The hon. Gentleman (Mr. Davey) can wait, because I spent a lot of time listening to him make a lot of allegations, and I have been left with a very short time to respond to him. He deserves a response, because a lot of people in his area have been frightened by what he says. They are now worried that there is some sort of plan to close these NHS facilities, which there is not, and that there is more going on than just some discussion between clinicians. I accept that that is happening, and it is part of the Darzi process of involving clinicians in discussing how to improve the quality of services, but he and the hon. Member for Richmond Park are playing politics with the matter. I care about the NHS, and I actually think that behind it all they do too. What they are doing, however, is trying to frighten people into believing that services are definitely closing, when all that is going on is some discussions between clinicians. What the eventual proposals will be I do not know, and nor does he. We should not at this stage use scare stories like this for election purposes, in a cynical way-

House adjourned without Question put (Standing Order No. 9(7)).