Health Bill

I should like to have spoken at greater length in the earlier debate on smoking. None the less, I am delighted with the outcome. Clearly, my wise words were not needed. Four or five years ago, we conducted a major survey in my constituency on health care services in Bristol. The most common spontaneous remarks expressed concern about standards of cleanliness in hospitals in the city. In the verbal surveys about health care that we conducted on the doorstep, people often commented on that, and it is therefore right to raise the matter now. We also discussed it at length in Committee. Proposed new paragraphs (e) to (j) in amendment No. 12 make sense. Proposed new paragraph (d) is also important because it is obvious that the infection control nurse needs to report directly to somebody, but I wonder whether we need to appoint a separate trust director for that role. As my hon. Friend the Member for Stafford (Mr. Kidney) pointed out, the medical or clinical director of most acute trusts is likely to hold such a responsibility already—from memory, that is the case in Bristol—but there may be some merit in making that publicly known. Let me deal with amendments Nos. 35 and £7, which the hon. Member for Mid-Bedfordshire (Mrs. Dorries) tabled. I wonder on what evidence she based her remarks, because much of it appeared anecdotal. Is there such evidence in the public domain? Perhaps the Minister could comment on that. How widespread are the abuses of standards of cleanliness that the hon. Member for Mid-Bedfordshire described? Has she spoken to representatives of the Royal College of Nursing, Unison or any other representative bodies in the health service?