§ Mr. ButlerTo ask the Secretary of State for Health if, in view of the findings of "We're Just in Time—AIDS, Brain Damage and Psychiatric Hospital Closures", by Charles Tannock and Caroline Collier, a copy of which has been sent to him, he will review the national strategy of closing long-stay mental hospitals.
§ Mr. Kenneth ClarkeThe report "We're Just in Time—AIDS, Brain Damage and Psychiatric Hospital Closures" recommends that 2,500 beds will be required by 1995 to cater for patients with brain damage due to AIDS and that these should be provided in psychiatric hospitals formerly occupied by long-stay psychiatric patients.
I shall consider the report carefully. However, my Department is not aware of any objective research to support this recommendation. People with AIDS-related brain damage generally have other physical conditions which require extensive physical care. Others with mild dementia or neurological disorders need a range of support services, not necessarily in an institutional service. The services needed by people with HIV and AIDS are kept constantly under review.
The Government's longstanding policy is that people with mental illness should have access to all the services they need as locally as possible. Our policy relating to the development of mental health services is not aimed primarily at closing hospitals but at the provision of services to meet all the needs of mentally ill people. Health authorities closure plans concern mainly the "traditional" mental hospitals, including the Victorian asylums which, apart from their age, are generally too large or too remote to form part of a modern local service, providing treatment and care with the minimum of formality and delay. I do not consider that there is currently any reason to review this strategy.
It is for health authorities to determine the pace of rundown of these old large hospitals, but the rundown and closure of any hospital should not proceed faster than the 338W build-up of alternative comprehensive locally based services. My Department's guidance to health authorities makes this clear.