§ Mr. Priorasked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many beds are available for the elderly sick in the Norfolk Area Health Authority and in the Suffolk Area Health Authority; how many of these beds are available for people living in the Lowestoft constituency; how the number of beds per 1,000 of the population compares with other parts of the country; and what steps are being taken to improve the shortage.
§ Mr. MoyleLowestoft is within the Great Yarmouth and Waveney Health District, which is managed by Norfolk Area Health Authority. In 1976–77 there were 4.7 beds per thousand of the population aged 65 and over in the district available for care and treatment of the elderly. This compares with 6.8 beds per thousand in the area managed by Norfolk AHA, 11.5 in the area managed by Suffolk, 8.8 in East Anglia as a whole, and 8.3 in England. The health authorities are conscious of the need to increase provision in the district, and their plans for development of services to the elderly envisage that provision in the Great Yarmouth and Waveney District will be about 7.3 per thousand in 1981–82, and that by 1985–86, at 9.6 per thousand, it will be close to the level of 10 per thousand recommended by my Department.