§ Mr. SteinbergTo ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list the total number of beds available to the national health service for the treatment of mental illness in 1980 and in 1990.
§ Mr. DorrellIn 1989–90, the latest year for which information is available centrally, there were 59,290 average daily available mental illness beds in national health service hospitals in England, compared with 87,396 in 1980.
The numbers of mentally ill patients staying in hospital for long periods has been falling since the mid-1970s. This is true not only for England but for most other developed countries. Over the last 30 years it has become clear from research that less reliance need be placed on in-patient care and better results can be achieved using more day-patient and community care. Additionally the advent of the major tranquillisers in the mid-1950s enabled many patients who previously needed long-term in-patient care to benefit from care on an out-patient basis.
45WThis has been reflected in the steady improvement in community-based services for mentally ill people in the past 10 years. Gross spending on hospital and community health services for mentally ill people increased by 27 per cent. in real terms between 1979–80 and 1989–90 to £1,661.7 million. Gross spending on local authority social services for the mentally ill has increased substantially and will be further increased by the mental illness specific grant which came into effect on 1 April 1991. The number of community psychiatric nurses has more than trebled from 1,083 in 1981 to 3,380 in 1989.
The number of mental illness day hospital places in England increased from 15,300 in 1981 to over 19,000 in 1988. Total provision of day centre places for mentally ill people, including places in mixed centres and those made available to local authorities by voluntary bodies, rose from 7,600 in 1981 to 10,400 places in 1988.