HL Deb 15 November 1990 vol 523 cc440-2

3.8 p.m.

Lord Ennals asked Her Majesty's Government:

What will be the future of the Gordon day hospital, Westminster, opened five years ago by Lord Ennals, to treat patients with mental illness in South-West London.

Baroness Hooper

My Lords, the future of the Gordon hospital and its day hospital is secure. Riverside Health Authority is committed to the hospital and is considering ways in which more specialised services can be brought onto the site to supplement the core mental health services already provided there.

Lord Ennals

My Lords, I visited the Gordon hospital two or three days ago and as from last Friday it has been forced to close 18 beds. Is the Minister aware that the hospital was largely opened in its current form to enable the Banstead mental hospital to be closed and therefore to provide beds in the community for those discharged from the psychiatric hospital? Is the noble Baroness also aware that there is considerable concern among doctors and nurses at the hospital about the closure of the 18 beds? Surely the Minister is not saying that it has not closed those beds.

Baroness Hooper

No, my Lords. There has been a temporary closure of 18 beds at the Gordon hospital. That is part of a range of measures that the health authority is putting into effect to ensure that levels of expenditure are contained within revenue allocation. The industrial therapy unit, which was moved to the Gordon hospital on a temporary basis following the closure of Banstead hospital, to which the noble Lord referred, can best fulfil its function in a community setting. The district is exploring the possibility of relocating into the community, and a working group has been established to consider that position. In all those matters I understand that members of staff in the unit have been consulted and have agreed to the general strategy.

Lord Ennals

My Lords, does the Minister accept that there is great concern about the closure of beds? She said that they are temporary closures, but how temporary is temporary? When I was at the hospital I was told that they may be closed until April. That is a long time and may lead to a great build-up of single homeless people without a place to go to.

Baroness Hooper

My Lords, I understand that since the proposal to make some closures was agreed it has been possible to limit closures to a net reduction of only nine beds.

Lord Ennals

Good news, my Lords.

Lord Winstanley

My Lords, is the noble Baroness aware that the noble Lord, Lord Ennals, is by no means the only Minister of Health to have opened beds which subsequently were closed? Does she recollect that every Minister of Health since the NHS was formed has opened beds which later were closed? Is she further aware that I attended the opening by a Conservative Minister of Health of some new beds in Oldham and that I then waited after the official opening to see the beds locked up by the caretaker because there were no nurses to staff them? Is it not a fact that there has been a shortage of resources ever since the NHS began, irrespective of the party in power?

Baroness Hooper

My Lords, I can only say that there has been considerable activity within the NHS and an enormous increase in the number of people treated. It is misleading to look at London in isolation because the fall in bed numbers has been faster in London than elsewhere. That reflects the policy of successive governments to move resources out of London to surrounding areas, thus enabling people to be treated nearer their homes.

Lord Ennals

My Lords, I opened the hospital only five years ago, in the days of a Conservative Government.