§ Mr. Robert Banksasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will set out the number of beds which will be provided in the new Falkland Islands hospital and the cost per bed as compared with cost per bed for an equivalent hospital in the United Kingdom.
§ Mr. RaisonThe new hospital in Stanley will have 28 beds including a two-bed intensive care unit. This figure excludes sheltered housing which will provide accommodation for up to 15 elderly people who would formerly have been accommodated in a residential wing of the old hospital.
The hospital has been designed to cater for the needs of the civilian and military communities in the Falkland Islands and includes such facilities as an operating theatre which would not be found in a hospital of similar size in this country. Direct comparisons with the cost of health care facilities in this country are therefore not possible. Standards in the new hospital conform to DHSS standards.