§ Mr. Onslowasked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many children under the age of 12 years are currently in long-stay hospitals in each health district in England and Wales; and how many of these are not mentally handicapped.
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§ Mr. MoyleI regret that figures are not available for health districts, nor in the precise form requested. In 1972, the latest year for which figures are available, there were an estimated 11,820 spells of in-patient treatment of children under 15 years of age in non-psychiatric hospitals in England and Wales classified as "long-stay" or "mainly long-stay". There were 7,030 boys with a mean duration of stay of 10.5 days and 4,790 girls with a mean stay of 8.6 days.
It is not the practice to designate particular psychiatric hospitals as "long-stay" hospitals.
Although precise figures are not available, it is estimated that at the end of 1974 there were about 3,000 children under the age of 12 years in psychiatric hospitals and units in England and Wales, of which about 2,200 had been resident for more than one year. Virtually all of these longer-stay child patients were mentally handicapped.
The estimated numbers in each health region are as in the following table.
All lengths of stay Lengths of stay 1 year and over Northern … 209 130 Yorkshire … 180 125 Trent … 257 172 East Anglia … 59 38 North-West Thames … 236 175 North-East Thames … 135 102 South-East Thames … 168 116 South-West Thames … 320 238 Wessex … 181 143 Oxford … 227 156 South-Western … 216 164 West Midlands … 341 259 Mersey … 228 162 North-Western … 169 109 Wales … 112 78