§ LORD AVEBURYasked Her Majesty's Government:
How many of the 36,000 long-stay patients now accommodated in psychiatric hospitals they estimate could be treated in the community; and what facilities, such as domiciliary nurses, would have to be provided additionally to those already existing.
§ LORD ABERDARENo such estimate has been made in respect of patients in hospitals for the mentally ill. The number of patients needing long-term treatment as hospital in-patients is declining sharply with progress in methods of treatment. At the end of 1970, 66,476 patients had been in mental illness hospitals and units for three years or more compared with 83,378 in 1963.
As regards the mentally handicapped, at the end of 1970 about 57,000 patients in hospital (89 per cent. of all such patients) had been in continuous residence in hospital for three or more years. Surveys in two areas have suggested that about a third to a half of all mentally handicapped people in hospital might be discharged if there were appropriate services elsewhere. However there is necessarily a subjective element in such surveys, and it would be unwise to estimate a national figure from such limited data. Command 4683, Better Services for the Mentally Handicapped,outlines the new balance of hospital and community services towards which we are aiming.