§ Mr. Ovendenasked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many hospital beds for geriatric patients are provided per 1,000 of the population aged over 65 years in the Medway Health District; and how this figure compares with the figure for Kent and for England and Wales as a whole.
§ Dr. OwenThe figures are:
Medway Health District … 6.7 Kent Area Health Authority … 8.6 England and Wales … 89
§ Mr. Ovendenasked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many hospital beds for geriatric patients are provided at each hospital in the Medway Health District; and what proposals she has to increase this number within the next 10 years.
§ Dr. OwenIn the Medway Health District beds for geriatric patients are provided as follows:
731W
All Saints, Chatham … 60 Keycol Hill Hospital, Sittingbourne … 45 Milton Regis Hospital, Sittingbourne … 124 Sheppey General Hospital … 12 241 The Kent Area Health Authority, which is responsible in the first instance for the administration and planning of health services for the District, has told me that, subject to the availability of finance, it hopes to provide an additional 28 beds at Milton Regis Hospital within the next few years and ultimately to expand the total number of geriatric beds in the district to 427.