78. Mr. loan Evansasked the Secretary of State for Wales if he will make a statement on the mental health services for both the sick and the handicapped in Wales; and how this compares with 1975 and 1976.
§ Mr. Barry JonesThe planning and provision of services is primarily the responsibility of area health authorities who have to work within the limits of available resources. Recent guidance from my Department on policies and priorities reaffirms my view that we should encourage the growth of domiciliary and preventive care and that services for the 533W mentally ill should take priority second only to those for the elderly. Differing circumstances in various areas necessitate a flexibility of approach. A quantitative assessment would not be meaningful, but, whilst there is still substantial room for improvement, I can assure my hon. Friend that much progress has been made in services for the mentally handicapped and is being made despite the many difficulties.
§ Mr. Andersonasked the Secretary of State for Wales what proportion of beds for mental illness are now in general hospitals in Wales.
§ Mr. Barry JonesAt December 1976, 3.7 per cent.
§ Mr. D. E. Thomasasked the Secretary of State for Wales if lie will publish details showing the following facilities in the constituency of the hon. Member for Merioneth and the immediate area hospital authority region, namely (a) the number of hospital beds devoted to the mentally sick and handicapped as a percentage of the total number of beds, (b) the provision of after-care facilities for the mentally sick and handicapped and (c) the amount expended in the past three years on the various aspects of after-care for the mentally sick and handicapped.
§ Mr. Barry Jones(a) The following table gives beds for the mentally ill—mentally handicapped as a percentage of all beds, at December 1976:
Merioneth constituency … 41.6 Gwynedd Health Authority … 25.7 Clwyd Health Authority … 29.3 (b) After-care facilities provided by the health authorities are mainly in the form of out-patient facilities. The table below shows the number of new out-patient and total attendances during the year ended 31st December 1976:
Number of new out-patients Total Attendances Gwynedd Health Authority 633 2,276 Clwyd Health Authority 1,215 8,217 There were no out-patients at hospitals in the Merioneth constituency.
After-care facilities for the mentally disordered provided by social services department at 31st March 1976 are as follows: 534W
Clwyd Gwynedd Number of places in: Residential accommodation (homes and hostels) 145 48 Day centers (1) 47 12 Adult training centers 347 173 (1) Including places in multi-purpose centres, some of which are available for the mentally disordered. No information is available for the Merioneth constituency separately.
(c) Information about expenditure on after-care is not readily available and could not be obtained without disproportionate cost.
§ Mr. Abseasked the Secretary of State for Wales if he will make a statement on the percentage of the total National Health Service expenditure devoted to the mentally sick and handicapped in Wales.
§ Mr. Barry JonesIn the financial year 1975–76 National Health Service expenditure on services for mentally ill and mentally handicapped patients was £31.9 million. This represented 11.8 per cent. of gross national health service expenditure in. Wales in the same period.
§ Mr. Abseasked the Secretary of State for Wales if he will make a statement on the comparative expenditure on the mentally sick and handicapped between Wales and the rest of the United Kingdom.
§ Mr. Barry JonesThe latest year for which information is available is 1975–76. In this period the total expenditure on services for the mentally ill and mentally handicapped in each country was as follows:
£ million England … 621.8 Scotland … 94.1 Wales … 35.9 Northern Ireland (estimated) … 27.0