§ Dr. Lynne JonesTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what changes there have been since 1986 in the collection of information on admissions of psychiatric patients into hospital(a) as voluntary patients and (b) detained under the various sections of the Mental Health Acts; and if she will make a statement.
§ Mr. YeoFrom April 1987, following the Korner review of health service information, statistics on detained patients admitted to national health service facilities and NHS patients using non-NHS facilities under contractual arrangements have been collected on the aggregate return KH15. This return collects information on admissions by legal status—that is, whether informal or detained under one of the sections of the Mental Health Act—and by mental category, and covers the financial year. Prior to this, statistics on formal admissions, by legal status and diagnostic group, to NHS mental illness and mental handicap hospitals and units were collected by the mental health enquiry—MHE—from all psychiatric hospitals, and were for the calendar year. Similarly, the form KO37 covers admissions to private nursing homes authorised to detain patients, and replaced form SBL631, except that KO37 excludes patients treated under contractual arrangements with the NHS which were included on SBL631. Statistics on changes in legal status after admission were collected for the first time in 1987–88 on form KH16.
Information on legal status is included in the psychiatric census part of the hospital episodes statistics system. The census includes details on patients formally detained under the Mental Health Acts and on those patients in hospital under the mental illness specialty for a 444W year or more. The information collected here includes diagnosis, but the data so far have been deficient and unreliable.