§ Mr. Moonmanasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what is her policy towards proposing minimum standards for psychiatric care in district general 330W hospitals along the lines of the circular DS 86/72, which specifically excluded district general hospitals.
§ Dr. OwenMinimum standards of the kind set in DS 86/72 would for the most part not be appropriate to psychiatric units in general hospitals. For example standards related to food, domestic and kitchen staffing could not be set for the psychiatric unit separately from the rest of the hospital. So far as medical and nurse staffing levels are concerned, we envisage for the future a combination of in-patient, day-patient, out-patient and domiciliary services for each district, and in view of this changing pattern of services we consider that staffing ratios are best related to the size of population served rather than to individual facilities.