HC Deb 19 March 1964 vol 691 cc218-9W
Mr. Hale

asked the Minister of Health whether he will circulate in the OFFICIAL REPORT the names and addresses and number of beds available in each of the institutions under his control which provide inpatient psychiatric accommodation for a girl of 13 years of age.

Mr. Braine

Any psychiatric hospital and some general hospitals may admit a 13-year-old girl who needs psychiatric treatment, depending on her needs and their facilities. For a list of in-patient units which specialise in the treatment of mentally ill and seriously maladjusted children and adolescents I would refer the hon. Member to my Answer on 24th February to my hon. Friend the Member for Tottenham (Mr. A. Brown).

Mr. Hale

asked the Minister of Health (1) why the hon. Member for Oldham, West has received no reply, other than a formal acknowledgment, to his letter of 26th February, 1964, calling further attention to the case of the thirteen-year-old girl still awaiting admission to a psychiatric institution:

(2) when the thirteen-year-old girl referred to in the letter from the hon. Member for Oldham, West to him, dated 26th August. 1963, and accepted by his Department as being suitable for inpatient psychiatric treatment, will be admitted to hospital;

(3) what steps he has taken to find inpatient accommodation at a psychiatric institution for the thirteen-year-old girl, in respect of whom the magistrates, when placing her on probation on 16th August, 1963, expressed the hope that she would receive inpatient psychiatric treatment, and about whom the Parliamentary Secretary wrote to the hon. Member for Oldham, West on 22nd November, 1963, and who could not be admitted to the Booth Hall Institution because she is over 12 years of age;

(4) why the thirteen-year-old girl about whom the Parliamentary Secretary wrote to the hon. Member for Oldham, West on 22nd November, 1963, to the effect that admission to an open-air school was being sought as an interim measure, has still not been found such accommodation; and what further representations he is making to this end;

(5) what steps he has taken since the Parliamentary Secretary's letter to the hon. Member for Oldham, West on 22nd November, 1963, to implement the promise contained in the Parliamentary Secretary's letter of 29th August, 1963, to keep the hon. Member for Oldham, West informed of developments in connection with a thirteen-year-old girl urgently in need of psychiatric treatment.

Mr. Braine

The hon. Member will now have received a reply together with an invitation to discuss the case.