§ 33. Mr. Kelleyasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what steps he intends to take to ensure that suitable hospital accommodation is found for the mentally unstable girl, about whom the hon. Member for Don Valley wrote to him on 28th April, 1971.
§ Mr. AlisonI am making inquiries to determine the most suitable accommodation for this girl and will write to the hon. Member when these are completed.
§ Mr. KelleyIs the Minister aware that this situation discloses a rather lamentable lapse in the arrangements made under the National Health Service to deal with cases of this kind? Is he aware that this girl of 14 years of age, who is capable of extreme physical violence, was asked to be returned to her home because the staff at the hospital were not prepared to take care of her and there was no suitable institution available? The medical people at the hospital made extensive inquiries throughout the country and suitable accommodation could not be found for her, so they asked for her to be returned to her home, an ordinary council house, where she could not be looked after and where she would have been a disruptive influence in the domestic circle.
§ Mr. AlisonThis is a tragic and complicated personal case, and I should prefer to pursue it with the hon. Gentleman in correspondence.