355
Health Service Dispute:
[LORDS]
Lord Boyd-Carpenter: My Lords, will my noble friend reconsider his suggestion that to legislate in honour of people who have fought loyally by our side is not really accurately or properly described as propaganda warfare?
Lord Elton: My Lords, I am much obliged to my noble friend for enabling me to correct an impression that I wrongly gave. I understood that he was asking whether it was not appropriate to bring in legislation in response to an advertisement taken by wealthy Argentinians, and it was to that point that I was answering. The remainder of the case must rest on its merits, and that I hope is the basis on which I dealt with it.
Lord Paget of Northampton: My Lords, may we now take it that the noble Lord agrees that it is not just propaganda to suggest that people who have suffered gross injury as a result of the negligence of Her Majesty's Government, resulting in the resignation of the Foreign Secretary, should be treated in the same way as the Gibraltarians, who have suffered no similar injury from the negligence of Her Majesty's Govern- ment?
Lord Elton: My Lords, I should not wish to be drawn on issues of responsibility. I have already said that I do not think that this is a matter of progapanda warfare, except in the terms to which my noble friend referred at the beginning of our exchanges. I think that Ì have made the case that every citizen of the Falkland Islands will either become a British citizen automatically on 1st January next year, or have the opportunity so to do if they wish.
Lord Renton: My Lords, does my noble friend recollect that during the last war the island of Malta was awarded for its valour with the George Cross, and would not some similar recognition, either by grant of special citizenship, or in some other way, be well deserving in the case of the people of the Falkland Islands?
Lord Elton: My Lords, it would be difficult to promote the people of the Falkland Islands higher in the esteem or the sympathy of either this House or the country.
Baroness Trumpington: My Lords, will my noble friend agree that recent events could hardly have left the 400 Falkland islanders in any doubt of the love, esteem, and care that we show for them? We could have done no more had they been living in Westminster.
Lord Elton: My Lords, I am greatly obliged to my noble friend. We sometimes tend to forget that side of the argument.
Health Service Dispute: Patient Welfare
3.15 p.m.
Baroness Lane-Fox: My Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.
1
Patient Welfare
356
The Question was as follows:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they are aware of the comments made by medical practi- tioners about the adverse effects on their work of the industrial action now being taken by workers in the National Health Service.
Lord Trefgarne: My Lords, I am well aware of the concern which doctors have expressed about the effects of the industrial action. We have consistently urged the trade unions to call off the action, which can only be harmful to patients, and to return to the negotiating table.
Baroness Lane-Fox: My Lords, in thanking my noble friend the Minister for his reply, may I ask for his opinion on the hold-up of sterile supplies, which impedes the work of doctors, requires operations to be postponed, and causes anguish to patients? Is he further aware that diagnosis of emergency cases by the picket line is farcical and unacceptable to ill people?
Lord Trefgarne: My Lords, of course I deplore the effects of the industrial action, however it may be manifested, but in particular in the case of sterile supplies, in regard to which in a number of cases departments have been reduced to issuing supplies for emergency purposes only. As for the determination of emergencies, that is of course a matter for the doctors concerned and not for the medically unqualified personnel; and I believe that the unions appreciate that.
Lord Wells-Pestell: My Lords, may I ask the noble Lord the Minister whether he would be good enough to inform his noble friend who has asked the Question that a good many ordinary people were inconvenienced and had their operations postponed when medical consultants went on strike not all that long ago?
matter.
Lord Trefgarne: My Lords, that is a rather different But, of course, I deplore industrial action whenever it takes place in the Health Service, and we have made our views clear on that point.
Lord Winstanley: My Lords, does the noble Lord accept that this very regrettable strike is by no means the only factor that is having an adverse effect on the work of National Health Service general practitioners? Has the noble Lord been made aware of the report of the Social Services Committee in another place, which draws attention to the very serious effects which the University Grants Committee cuts are having on university clinical staff, upon whom many general practitioners' patients are dependent for their clinical care? In other words, would it not be a little unfair if we laid all that is wrong at the moment with National Health Service general practice at the door of the present striking health service workers?
Lord Trefgarne: My Lords, I think that the noble Lord is referring to something slightly different. My noble friend was referring in particular to the hospital service within the health service. With regard to the effect on general practitioners' patients, I should say that in some parts of the country some GPs, indeed many GPs, I think, are having difficulties as a result of