Nicholas Soames, Member of Parliament for Mid Sussex, raised in Parliament with the Leader of the House of Commons at Business Questions on Thursday 13th October, the urgent need for a debate, in Government time, on the financial crisis engulfing the health service in the South East.

Nicholas Soames said; “We shall go on pressing the Government on these matters and I have also had a discussion with Jane Kennedy MP, Minister of State for Health, about the very serious situation relating to the finances of the Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust.”

Notes

Question to the Leader of the House of Commons, The Rt Hon Geoffrey Hoon MP:-

Mr. Nicholas Soames (Mid-Sussex) (Con): The House will have been surprised by the response from the Leader of the House to my hon. Friend the shadow Leader of the House in asking for a debate on the health service. Is it not clear that the Leader of the House views these matters with a detachment and ignorance that do not match what is going on in the country? It is clearly true that the Government have invested very substantial sums in the health service, but in the south-east of England there is a major crisis, which our constituents demand should be debated in the House so that the Government may be held to account for the failings that are causing considerable difficulties.[Hansard 13th October 2005, column 440, Business of the House]

• Mr Soames’s question followed his meeting with his fellow Surrey and Sussex Parlamentary colleagues and the Surrey and Sussex Strategic Health Authority on Tuesday 11th October.