Health Bill [HL]

Well, I am very happy to sit down and now stand up again. Will the noble Baroness, who knows that I hold her in great respect, deal with two questions? The first goes back to the mother and baby unit. How far does that estimate of 15 patients from National Health Service quarters reflect the seriousness with which the contribution that could be made by such a unit is regarded by GPs and others within the area? How do we know that, if such a unit exists, we would not find that the demand from health service quarters quickly increased? Would the hospital or trust concerned then be tied into giving access to private patients when it had become clear that the need from health service quarters was larger than anticipated? My other question is a simple one. The noble Baroness said that her foundation trust had no interest in this issue at all and that she was simply putting the case for the network. I am quite certain that, if she were in the chair in such a situation, a facility would be honourably and in the spirit implemented. Is she absolutely convinced that it would be approached in quite the same way in all trusts, and that, once having had a facility provided under such regulations, a trust might not be tempted to seek wherever possible to maximise income for the trust from private quarters as distinct from health service need?