§ 63. Mr. FearnTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Services how many psychiatric hospitals he expects to be closed in the next four years; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mrs. CurrieI regret that this information is not available centrally. The hon. Member may, however, wish to know that from details obtained earlier this year on the 100 or so large mental illness hospitals in England (that is, those which had over 200 beds in 1975), there were plans for the closure of 31 by about 1995, subject to the results of public consultation. We have made clear that none of the hospitals will be closed until a range of appropriate alternative accommodation and services is in place, and planned closure dates must be subject to this proviso.
The objective of policy is the development of high quality local mental illness services covering short-stay and long-stay in-patient care and a comprehensive range of community facilities; the reduction in size of some traditional hospitals and the closure of others will be a consequence of this development.