§ Mr. Gouldasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will publish in the Official Report lists showing (a) those long-stay mental hospitals currently approved for closure, (b) those long-stay mental hospitals listed in regional strategic plans as proposed for closure before 1995 and (c) those long-stay mental hospitals that have been indicated by regional health authorities as 670W possibilities for closure outside the strategic planning period listing in each instance the present number of in-patients.
§ Mrs. Currie[pursuant to her reply, 21 January 1987, c. 619–20]: The primary objective of policy on services for people who are mentally ill is the development of a range of high quality local facilities so that people can use the services they need with the minimum of formality and delay, and without losing touch with their everyday lives. The reduction in size of some hospitals, and the closure of others, will be a consequence of achieving that aim, and accompanied by the development of psychiatric services in each district which now lacks them. These will provide in-patient facilities for people who need admission for assessment, acute treatment, or longer term care, together with a comprehensive range of community facilities.
Almost all mental illness hospitals care for both long-stay and short-stay patients, but I have obtained information on the one hundred or so large traditional mental illness hospitals (that is, those which had over 200 beds in 1975), which care for most long-stay patients. Of these hospitals, table 1 indicates those where public consultation has been completed and closure approved, in both cases with the support of the local community health council. It indicates when closure was approved, and the number of in-patients on 31 December 1985.
Table 2 lists those hospitals which regional health authorities have indicated they plan to close by about 1995, subject to the results of the public consultation, which has yet to take place or is now under way, and the provision of appropriate alternative accommodation and services. Some of the in-patient care provided by these hospitals will still be needed and some parts of hospitals, for example wards providing acute care and psychogeriatric care, will move with their patients to new locations meeting the aims set out in the first paragraph above. Regional health authorities' plans must also meet the needs of those long-stay patients who need continuing in-patient care. And plans must provide too for the identification of other suitable accommodation and support (which will need to be tailored to the needs of individual patients) for those who no longer need to remain in in-patient care.
Most of these closure proposals were included in regional strategic plans, but the list takes account of changes since then. Circumstances do not enable regional health authorities to indicate systematically any plans for the period after 1995 or so.
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Table 1 Mental Illness hospitals with over 200 beds, approved for closure, following public consultation. Number of in-patients 31 December 1985 Date closure approved Yorkshire Naburn Hospital, Near York 210 May 1985 South Western Horton Road Hospital 517 June 1986
Table 2 Mental Illness hospitals which have, or have had, over 200 beds, which Regional Health Authorities have indicated they plan to close, subject to consultation and to suitable alternative provision being made, by about 1995. Number of in-patients 31 December 1985 Yorkshire Storthes Hall Hospital, Near Huddersfield 820 Pastures Hospital, Near Derby 649 Carlton Hayes Hospital, Narborough 552 St. John's Hospital, Lincoln 524 Rauceby Hospital 361 Saxondale Hospital 396 Mapperley Hospital, Nottingham 265 Middlewood Hospital, Sheffield 610 East Anglian St. Audry's Hospital, Woodbridge 408 North West Thames Hill End Hospital 413 North East Thames Friern Hospital1 787 Claybury Hospital 833 South East Thames Cane Hill Hospital 628 Tooting Bec Hospital 719 Hellingly Hospital 396 St. Augustines Hospital 460 South West Thames Long Grove Hospital, Epsom 653 Brookwood Hospital 704 Wessex Whitecroft Hospital 103 Old Manor Hospital1 229 Knowle Hospital 395 St. James Hospital, Portsmouth1 336 Oxford St. John's Hospital, Aylesbury 385 St. Crispin's Hospital, Northampton 361 South Western Digby Hospital, Exeter 2 Mendip Hospital 398 West Midlands Powick Hospital, Worcester 136 Mersey Rainhill Hospital (except for Scott Clinic) 1007 North Western North Manchester (Springfield) Hospital1 351 1 With some provision remaining on site. 2 Digby is one of two branches of Exe Vale Hospital. There were 210 in-patients in both branches (Digby and Wonford) at 31 December 1985.