Mental Health

HC Deb 02 March 1959 vol 601 cc1-2W

9. Mr. Dodds-Parker

asked the Minister of Health what steps are being taken to ensure that the number and grading of permanent posts in the teaching and practice of psychiatry and in research into mental illness and mental

Agency	Field	Amount
		£
Medical Research Council	Biochemistry, neuropharmacology and neurophysiology	18,495
	Clinical psychiatry	34,827
	Genetics	1,100
	Psychology (excluding work for the services, industrial and academic psychology)	3,692
	Neurology	5,000
Regional Hospital Boards	Various locally organised projects.
N.W. Metropolitan		5,850
S.W. Metropolitan		4,415
South Western		700
		£74,079

Boards of governors of teaching hospitals and regional hospital boards also undertook during 1957–58 mental health research costing £33,000 and £28,000 respectively from non-Exchequer funds.

Research into mental health, financial details of which are not available, is also undertaken by universities and medical schools.

The hon. Member will be interested to know that expenditure by the Medical Research Council on mental health

health is such as to make possible the adequate and balanced growth of this branch of the medical profession.

Mr. Walker-Smith

The number of such posts has increased as rapidly as permitted by the supply of suitable candidates for training in recent years. Hospital boards are well aware of the need to continue to develop their mental health services as far as resources allow.

10. Mr. Dodds-Parker

asked the Minister of Health what sums were applied from Government sources to research into mental illness during the last financial year; how these sums were distributed between different fields of research; and how such expenditure was divided between the Medical Research Council, the several regions of the National Health Service, the teaching hospitals and other channels.

Mr. Walker-Smith

Exchequer funds applied to research into mental illness by the Medical Research Council and the National Health Service during 1957–58 were as follows:

research in the current year is expected to be more than double that in 1957–58.