§ Mr. Alfred Morrisasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what is his best estimate of the current average cost of placing an elderly person in a local authority welfare home and an acute bed in a hospital ward.
§ Sir George YoungProvisional figures for the year ended 31 March 1980 indicate that the average daily cost of treating a patient in an acute hospital in England with more than 300 beds was approximately £55. This does not necessarily represent the cost of treating the elderly in acute hospitals, which is not known. The average cost of treating an elderly person in a geriatric hospital in 1979–80 was approximately £21 a day. The average daily cost of maintaining a resident in a local authority home for the elderly in the same year was £9.
These figures exclude capital costs and certain administrative costs not separately identified, and take no account of income from charges. The figure for a local authority home for the elderly is based on information taken from "Personal Social Services Statistics 1979–80 Actuals" published by the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy, a copy of which is in the Library of the House.