§ Mr. Dubsasked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many elderly, mentally ill and mentally handicapped patients have been discharged from hospital under the care in the community programme for each year since it began.
§ Mrs. CurrieInformation on the numbers of patients discharged from hospital under the care in the community programme is not collected centrally. Using duration of stay information collected in the mental health inquiry, an indication of the number of mentally ill and mentally handicapped people who have been settled in the community after, in effect, living in hospital can be derived from statistics of those discharged after stays of five years or more as given in the table. Some of these people may need to be readmitted for a time; for example, because of changes in their condition. Duration of stay information is not collected centrally for elderly patients and it is therefore not possible to derive a similar indication for them from the figures.
Discharges1 from mental illness and mental handicap hospitals and units in England after durations of stay of 5 years or more (excluding transfers to other NHS hospitals and special hospitals) Year Mental Illness Mental handicap 1983 821 967 1984 981 1,375 1985 986 1,522 1 Excludes transfer to other NHS hospitals and Special hospitals. Note: 1986 figures not yet available.