§ Mr. Jim CunninghamTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment she has made of the extent to which the current NHS system meets the Government's objective to promote the development of the domiciliary day and respite care services to enable people to live in their own home wherever feasible and sensible.
§ Mr. BowisRecent guidance, HSG(95)8, on national health service responsibilities for meeting continuing health care needs reiterated the important responsibilities of the NHS to arrange and fund a full range of services to meet people's continuing health care needs. As well as continuing in-patient care the guidance included important responsibilities for rehabilitation, respite health care and community health and primary care services for people at home or in residential care homes. Copies of the guidance are available in the Library.
§ Mr. Jim CunninghamTo ask the Secretary of State for Health how many elderly people are currently under domiciliary day and respite care; and how many are in full nursing home facilities.
§ Mr. BowisThe centrally available information on day and domiciliary services arranged by social services authorities shows that in a sample week in September 1993 there were estimated totals of 435,000 households in England receiving home help or home care where the oldest resident was aged 65 or over, 123,000 attendances at day centres by people aged 65 or over, and 287,000 people—nearly all aged 65 or over—had meals either delivered to their homes or served at luncheon clubs. Information is not available centrally about how many individuals were receiving services arranged by social services authorities.
The number of local authority supported residents aged 65 and over in short-term placements in either residential care or nursing homes, many of which will he for respite purposes, was 11,000 on 31 March 1994.
Information on all registered nursing homes is that there were 132,200 nursing home beds occupied by people aged 65 or over in 1993–94.