§ Mr. Meacherasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will list all closures of National Health Service property, district by district, since 1979.
§ Mrs. CurrieWe keep a central record of hospitals approved for closure, and I refer the hon. Member to the132W research on the costs of alternative forms of National Health Service care conducted for his Department by the institute of health economics at York university; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mrs. CurrieThe centre for health economics at York university has published findings on "The Costs of Alternative Forms of NHS Care for Mentally Handicapped People" in discussion paper number 7, (1985, centre for health economics, York university), a copy of which is available in the Library. It would be inappropriate to list the recommendations in isolation from the context of the report and the reservations documented by the authors.
It is important that health and local authorities, in planning their services, take account of the costs of various options for residential care open to them. The centre for health economics has started further work on the costs of alternative forms of non-National Health Service care. We expect the results and the methods from both projects to be of help to authorities in doing their own costings.