§ Mr. Wrayasked the Secretary of State for Scotland (1) how many patients were hospitalised for more than seven days in Scotland for each year since 1975;
(2) how many of the patients hospitalised for more than seven days in Scotland, for each year since 1975 did so under National Health Service provisions.
§ Mr. Michael Forsyth[holding answer 26 October 1987]: Detailed information including length of stay is held currently only for NHS hospitals. Corresponding information is not held for private hospitals and nursing homes. Available information relates not to patients but to discharges of patients after seperate episodes of care.
926WThe same patient may therefore be counted more than once. The information given relates to the number of discharges of patients after a stay of more than seven days from all NHS hospitals in Scotland in each calendar year. It does not include patients who have spent more than seven days in hospital but who were not discharged within the calendar year. Thus, many long stay patients in geriatric hospitals and mental illness and mental handicap hospitals are excluded.
Number 1975 311,430 1976 318,021 1977 311,105 1978 297,543 1979 293,205 1980 283,035 1981 290,356 1982 267,699 1983 283,511 1984 283,518 19851 283,654 1 Provisional.