§ Mrs. Dunwoodyasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what is the average cost per day per patient at the most recent available date of keeping (a) an elderly person, (b) a mentally ill person and (c) a mentally handicapped person in (i) inpatient care in hospital and (ii) local authority care, respectively.
§ Mr. John PattenThe information is not collected in exactly the form requested. Daily costs of particular types of hospitals are available but those of treating specific client groups are not. In 1981–82 the average cost per day per inpatient for geriatric hospitals in England was £31, for mental illness hospitals £28 and for mental handicap hospitals £25. The average daily cost per resident for residential care for the elderly was £12 per day, for the mentally ill £10 per day, and for mentally handicapped adults £12 per day. Costs for hospital inpatient and local authority facilities are not strictly comparable for a number of reasons however. For example, the local authority figures to not take account of extra community care costs such as transport and the administrative costs of social services departments.
§ Mrs. Dunwoodyasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what is the average cost of an accident and emergency outpatient case and of a single general practitioner case.
§ Mr. John PattenCosting returns submitted by health authorities show that the average cost of treating a case in a hospital accident and emergency department was £19.83 in 1981–82, the latest year for which information is available. It is not possible to identify the average cost of a single general practitioner case.