Brendan Ryan (Labour)

I can only report to the House what was indicated to me by people whom I believe to know what they are saying. I am not trying to start a row, I am merely placing on the record what was said to me.

This is the fourth anniversary of perhaps the worst decision taken by an American President during my adult life, namely, the invasion of Iraq. I do not wish to let the opportunity pass to mention the 150,000 to 800,000 Iraqi civilians who have died because of one man's obsession with another's dictatorship, the appalling carnage that has happened and, perhaps, the destruction of the reputations of a good man in Britain and a less saintly one in the United States.

When one refers to the health services in this House, one sounds like a broken record. This country has good reason to boast about its achievements in the areas of infant mortality and maternal mortality. However, it has emerged that a major maternity hospital is delaying women's first antenatal visits because there are insufficient numbers of consultants and midwives and this shows that one further part of the health service is beginning to fall apart. It has also emerged that another hospital has stopped taking urological appointments because people are being obliged to spend two years on the waiting list. Apparently, in order that the figures can be fiddled, one cannot have waiting lists of longer than two years. Therefore, they just do not accept any more appointments and the people are now being redirected to another hospital which, presumably, will shortly have a two-year waiting list as well. We know why there are problems. There are not enough urologists, midwives and gynaecologists. We know all this and nothing is happening. We must start a rolling debate in the House on the health services because every week yet another mess arrives on our plates.