§ 14. Mr. Wintertonasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what is the difference between the overall hospital capital expenditure for the current year programme compared with that of 1969–70.
§ Sir K. JosephHospital capital expenditure in 1972–73 is estimated to be about £183 million compared with £101 million in 1969–70; this represents an increase in real terms of just over 50 per cent.
§ Mr. WintertonMay I thank my right hon. Friend for that most encouraging 216 reply, which I am sure will be very welcome? What emphasis has he managed to place on the deprived sectors, such as the mentally ill, the chronically ill, the disabled and the long-stay patients?
§ Sir K. JosephA disproportionately large increase has been deliberately made in the non-acute sector. I have just said that an 80 per cent. increase in real terms has been made between the two years I mentioned in capital expenditure on mental handicap and mental illness, and almost as big an increase in services for the elderly.
§ Dr. SummerskillDoes the right hon. Gentleman agree that there is now a generally-accepted need to make preventive and curative medicine less hospital-oriented? What are his plans for reducing the proportion of the total National Health Service expenditure spent on hospitals and increasing the proportion spent on general practitioners and community services?
§ Sir K. JosephIf the hon. Lady cares to put down a Question, I will give her the precise answer, but the general position is that, in each year for which the present Government have been responsible, there has been a shift, within the rising real expenditure on the health and personal and social services, away from hospitals towards the community services. That is deliberate and it will continue.