§ 1. Mr. Carter-Jonesasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what is the average cost per patient in intensive care units, surgical departments of hospitals, acute departments in large general hospitals, geriatric wards, mental illness and mental handicapped departments; and if he will make a statement.
§ The Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Security (Mr. Michael Alison)Information is not available in the form requested. The patient costs collected summarise the activities of each hospital as a whole, classified according to its overall type.
§ Mr. Carter-JonesWhile thanking the Minister for that non-answer, may I ask whether he is not convinced that the amount involved is a substantial sum? Will he consider whether it is possible to keep patients out of hospital, thereby saving considerable sums of money, and sharing such savings among local authorities and the relatives of patients by pro- 208 viding massive support in technical aid, access and money so that these people can lead a dignified life at home when they so wish?
§ Mr. AlisonI take the hon. Member's point. He will have noticed from the public expenditure White Paper that the rate of increase in resources allocated for the personal social services operated at local level is increasing at about three times the rate of public expenditure as a whole.
§ Dr. StuttafordWould my hon. Friend agree that the fact that his Department has recently decreed that items hitherto placed on the revenue account are now to be charged to capital account means that capital expenditure on hospitals will fall by 10 per cent. in the next few years? Is he aware that for the East Anglia Regional Hospital Board that is equivalent to sacrificing one district general hospital?
§ Mr. AlisonI cannot reconcile my hon. Friend's figures with the fact that the total capital sum to be spent on hospital building in the present five-year public expenditure period is 50 per cent. greater than that spent by our predecessors.