§ Mr. Dubsasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what assessment he has made of the ability of local authorities to provide care in the community for mental illness patients when their hospitals are closed.
§ Mr. John PattenThe aim of current policies is a pattern of community-oriented care to which health authorities, local authorities and voluntary bodies all contribute, and in which most mentally ill people continue to obtain some care from the health authorities. Because the number of people requiring long-stay care has fallen and continues to fall, the number of beds in use has already fallen considerably, and the growing number of empty beds is a principal reason why plans are being made to close several hospitals.
Services should be jointly planned by health and local authorities to ensure continuity of care and the best use of all local resources. Assessment of the resources which can be made available is for the authorities locally. We welcome the new plans which are being made, following 62W the circular we issued last year on care in the community, for the discharge of some further long-stay patients who do not need to be in hospital.
We believe that the number of such patients remaining is under 5,000, and health authorities are now able to transfer resources with the patients, so we do not envisage any sudden or substantial increase in the burden falling on either local or social service authorities or local housing authorities. But we are conscious that there are already many more mentally ill people living at home than living in hospital, and we welcome the growing contribution which local authority social service departments are making to the care of these people.