§ Mr. Loveridgeasked the Secretary of State for Social Services, in the light of the fact that separately identified costs are not available for cottage or community hospitals, if he will undertake not 164W to agree to the closure of any such hospitals until such costs have been fully evaluated.
§ Dr. VaughanThe terms "cottage" and "community" are not recognised in the hospital classification scheme under which statistics are collected by the Department; thus, no estimate can be made of national average costs in such hospitals. Health authorities will, however, know the running costs of individual hospitals for which they are responsible and I would expect such information to be taken fully into account by them when considering possible hospital closures.