HC Deb 20 March 1986 vol 94 cc292-3W
Mr. Bermingham

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services what are the aims and the purpose of the special hospital system.

Mr. Whitney

The aims and purpose of the special hospitals are to provide care and treatment for patients detained under the Mental Health Act who require to be treated in conditions of special security on account of their dangerous, violent or criminal propensities, as required by section 4 of the National Health Service Act 1977.

Mr. Bermingham

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will take steps to ensure that information is made available in appropriate languages to patients in mental hospitals and their relatives whose first language is not English.

Mr. Whitney

I have nothing to add to my reply to my hon. Friend the Member for Cheltenham (Mr. Irving) on 11 February at column430.

Mr. Bermingham

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services what information he has as to the relative levels of misdiagnosis in secure and other mental hospitals, respectively, as between (a) black people and (b) white people; and what steps he is taking to seek to reduce the level of misdiagnosis in both absolute and relative terms.

Mr. Whitney

I have no reason to believe that there are significant problems of wrong diagnosis by doctors working in mental hospitals in this country, either generally or in relation to people of different racial origins. If the hon. Member has evidence of such problems, no doubt he will bring it to notice. The condition of patients being treated in special hospitals will usually have been diagnosed before their admission by doctors not employed at those hospitals, often by several such doctors. The consultant staff working in the special hospitals undertake their own diagnosis in the knowledge of the patient's medical history, including previous diagnosis.

Mr. Bermingham

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services what representations he has received as to the relative quality of medical treatment given in secure and other mental hospitals, respectively, to (a) black people and (b) white people; and what action he has taken in consequence.

Mr. Whitney

I have no reason to believe that doctors working in mental hospitals in this country are either insensitive to ethnic considerations where these are clearly relevant, or make any distinction in the quality of their treatment of patients on account of the patient's racial origins.