§ Mr. O'Halloranasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will publish in the Official Report a comparison of the scale and scope of the mental health services in Islington and the Greater London area generally in 1974, 1975, 1976 and 1977;and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. MoyleInformation on services provided in Islington and the four Thames Regions is published in "Facilities and Services of mental illness and mental handicap hospitals in England 1974". I am arranging for a copy to be sent to my hon. Friend. Information on facilities in the Greater London area is not readily available.
§ Mr. O'Halloranasked the Secretary of State for Social Services (1) if he will make a statement in respect of the Islington, North constituency and the adjacent area hospital authority region, as to the number of hospital beds devoted to the mentally sick and handicapped as a percentage of the total number of beds; what 598W provision is made for after-care facilities for the mentally sick and handicapped; and how much was expended in the past three years on the various aspects of after-care for the mentally sick and handicapped;
(2) if he will publish details showing facilities in the constituency of the hon. Member for Islington, North 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 aftercare facilities for the mentally sick and handicapped and (c) the amount expended in the past three years on the various aspects of aftercare for the mentally sick and handicapped.
§ Mr. MoyleInformation on hospital beds is not available for the constituency area. In hospitals managed by Camden and Islington Area Health Authority there were in 1976 on average 1,262 available mental illness beds: 26.5 per cent. of the total average daily number of available beds in the area. At present the Authority manages no in-patient facilities for the mentally handicapped, and patients from the Area are accommodated elsewhere in the Thames Regions. The additional information requested is not readily available, but I shall write to my hon. Friend.
§ Mr. O'Halloranasked the Secretary of State for Social Services (1) if he will make a statement on the servicing of the mentally sick in the Islington, North constituency and in the Greater London area generally;
(2) if he will make a statement on the services for mentally sick in the constituency of the hon. Member for Islington, North and the region generally;
(3) in view of the fact that the London borough of Islington has no long-stay provision for psychiatric patients, when such provision will be made.
§ Mr. EnnalsCamden and Islington Area Health Authority aims to provide within each of its three districts a comprehensive general hospital based psychiatric service. Islington district provides at present 60 in-patient beds at the Whittington Hospital, and proposes to expand this provision to a maximum of 599W 90. In addition Friern Hospital provides beds with associated day facilities for patients from the district including the old long-stay and the elderly severely mentally infirm. The Authority is currently studying what provision can be made within the district for these patients in the long term.
In North-East Thames about 20 per cent. of the region's psychiatric beds are in district hospital mental illness units; the remainder are concentrated in six psychiatric hospitals. Psychiatric inpatient provision for the remainder of Greater London remains similarly concentrated in large mental illness hospitals within the four Thames regions, and although the long-term objective of each region, in line with national policy, is to develop community based mental illness services, many districts in the next decade are likely to continue to rely on these hospitals for the provision of a comprehensive service.