The Earl of HARROWBYasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they will give a directive to the hospital service to install accommodation of bungalow type in hospital grounds for occupation by family units where one member suffers from such conditions as advanced multiple sclerosis or paralysis in order that the hospital staff may provide daily nursing care and thus minimise family tensions and enable the spouse to continue in employment or obtain relaxation in the knowledge that the patient would receive help if required; and whether they will indicate the financial and other implications of providing such a service.
§ Lord CULLEN of ASHBOURNEMy right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Social Services would not be1328WA justified in giving any such direction in present circumstances nor is it possible to make any estimate of the resource implications.
While we should like to expand it as resources permit, provision to relieve family tension does already exist. As well as providing intensive long term nursing care, many specially designed younger disabled units in hospital have increasingly been providing day care, short-term and holiday relief placements to give relatives a break.
We see our first priority in this field as securing the means whereby disabled people can stay in their own homes and my right honourable friend is anxious to see the extension of voluntary and private resources in the field of health care as a means of offering individual disabled people more choice and to relieve pressure on the health service. In pursuance of this, my right honourable friend's Department has significantly increased its grant to the Crossroads Care Attendant Scheme Trust to help them to set up schemes to help disabled people live at home with their families.
It must be for health authorities to decide how to allocate their limited staffing and other resources between community and other services in the light of local needs.