Health Bill

The Secretary of State does not have to give way to me, so I am grateful to her for doing so again—but does she not recall that two weeks ago I presented to the House data that showed that although in 2000 the NHS started with 186,000 beds, with a target of 7,000 additional beds, the number went down by 4,000? On present indications, we estimate that this year, as a result of NHS deficits, the number is likely to reduce by another 2,500, so there will be fewer than 180,000 beds. The number of beds is going down, and bed occupancy rates are persistently far higher than the Government said they would be when they responded to the NAO five years ago.