The Bed Crisis which was experienced last winter in Nottingham because of the high number of surgical beds being blocked by their occupancy by old people needing geriatic beds has led to further proposals to bring about improvements this year.

I was therefore very glad when in 1978, after there had been a Bed Crisis in Nottingham because large numbers of surgical beds were being blocked by their occupancy by old people needing geriatric beds, and after I had once more raised the inadequacy of the geriatric service, the area health authority decided that the provision of geriatric beds in Nottingham was a top priority.

On the question of the Crisis in Acute Beds in London and the surrounding areas, is she aware that the protest by the 10 teaching hospitals, led by Mr. Richard Thompson of St. Thomas's, means that in the last fortnight nine of those hospitals have had to refuse the admission of emergency cases?

I want to concentrate on the important human consequences of what is happening in the national health service, with the Present Beds Crisis.

In spite of some of the rhetoric from the Government Benches, every day, in every part of the country, there is an Acute Bed Crisis.

The Prime Minister's local hospital is this month turning patients away because of a Bed Crisis.

Ministers believe that better bed management will be the solution to the Bed Crisis.

I pin the blame for the Acute Bed Crisis in our city firmly on the regional health authority: that is where the buck stops.

Will the Leader of the House reconsider the request for a debate on the Crisis in Beds in the national health service?

We have singularly failed to do that, and it has led, in large measure, to the Beds Crisis that has occurred this winter.

In Liverpool, the Bed Crisis continues.

The letter reads:Because of the problems in other district hospitals brought about by the Recent Bed Crisis, we have not been able to move patients out of the unit and, therefore, this has restricted our ability to bring in patients for treatment.

We have a Crisis of Bed blocking and rapidly increasing numbers of elderly people.

A 26-week lead-in time for the provision of temporary beds starting from the end of February would take us to August, which is just when the Beds Crisis is forecast to blow up.

We remain convinced that reducing the total number of hospital beds in the county can only increase the existing Bed Crisis in the District General Hospitals at Treliske, Derriford and Barnstaple.

The Beds Crisis in the NHS that the Secretary of State speaks of is caused by a nursing staff crisis.

I turn to the Present Bed Crisis--always with us at this time of the year but particularly acute this time round.

The hospital is undergoing a Bed Crisis in midsummer.

Three factors will be crucial to managing winter pressure: the looming Bed Crisis in the private nursing home sector; the shortage of NHS beds; and the poor performance of the London ambulance service.

They will be judged to be failing if they suffer from the Government- induced Crisis of Bed blocking due to underfunding of social care and the crisis in the care sector.

Why does the Secretary of State not decide that it would be a good idea to alleviate the Bed Crisis by allowing private enterprise to build blocks of rooms on or adjacent to the sites of leading hospitals where that is physically possible, as it must be in many cases?

It had been apparent for a long time that a Bed Crisis in our care homes was imminent.

By April 2001, a Serious Bed Crisis was looming.

Will the Minister join me in congratulating the many thousands of local people who have raised money in south Oxfordshire and elsewhere to rebuild the Watlington hospital, thus helping to alleviate the Crisis in Bed blocking because it will provide 60 beds for long-term care, respite care and care for the elderly?

Every winter there was a Beds Crisis with wards being closed, and waiting lists for fairly basic operations, such as hip and knee operations, ran to many years.

My local primary care trust recently wrote to local doctors urging them not to send people to hospital because of a Beds Crisis.

The incoming Labour Government were determined to avoid the winter pressures - the winter Beds Crisis - that we had witnessed in the previous few winters under the Conservatives.

Let me make it clear, and in so doing reassure all hon. Members who have contributed to this short debate, that these temporary closures will not jeopardise the recovery of existing patients and will not lead to a Bed Crisis or a drop in the quality of care, as the hon. Gentleman fears.