§ Mr. Tom ClarkeTo ask the Secretary of State for Health how many consultants there are working full-time in psychogeriatrics in the United Kingdom; and how many people over the age of 65 years there are per consultant.
§ Mr. MellorWe do not hold this information centrally at present. Psychogeriatrics has been established recently as a separate specialty and there are plans to collect manpower figures in the future. In a joint report published in February this year, the Royal Colleges of Psychiatrists and Physicians estimated that there are currently 243 consultants working in old-age psychiatry and that at the end of 1986 about 70 per cent. of the United Kingdom elderly population had a specialist psychogeriatric service available to them. These figures represent a considerable advance in recent years.