§ Dr. Godmanasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will publish a table giving details of the amount of money per head spent on food for patients in mental hospitals and those in hospitals for the physically ill.
§ Mr. Kenneth ClarkeIn 1982–83 the estimated average expenditure in various types of hospital in England on patient catering was:
Expenditure per patient day Type of Hospital Provisons Processing Total £ £ £ Acute (over 300 beds) 1.31 1.59 2.90 Acute (101–300 beds) 1.31 1.73 3.04 Acute (51–100 beds) 1.28 1.92 3.20 Acute (1–50 beds) 1.23 2.16 3.39 Mainly Acute 1.29 1.51 2.80 Partly Acute 1.36 1.35 2.71 Mainly Long Stay 1.22 1.31 2.53 Long Stay 1.18 1.24 2.42 Geriatric 1.15 1.23 2.38 Pre-Convalescent 1.15 1.73 2.88 Convalescent 1.07 2.36 3.43 Rehabilitation 1.06 2.44 3.50 Maternity 1.62 2.20 3.82 Psychiatric—Mental Illness 1.18 0.89 2.07 Psychiatric—Mental Handicap 1.19 0.90 2.09 Orthopaedic 1.35 1.91 3.26 TB Chest 1.22 1.86 3.08 TB Chest and Isolation 1.21 1.88 3.09 Children's Acute 1.40 2.09 3.49 Eye 0.93 2.81 3.74 Definitions of hospital types appear in the annual DHSS publication "Health Services Costing Returns", copies of which are in the Library.
§ Mr. Proctorasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will make it his policy not to differentiate between (a) mentally-ill and (b) physically-ill patients in respect of the quality of the food served to them in the National Health Service; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. John PattenThis is already our policy.