§ Mr. George HowarthTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimate he has made of the number of days hospital beds are blocked because of local authority delays in providing(a) care packages and (b) aids or 802W adaptations to patients' homes for each local authority area in the north-west; and if he will make a statement. [2107]
§ Jacqui SmithI apologise to my hon. Friend for the delay in responding to this question. I refer my hon. Friend to the reply that my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State gave my hon. Friend the Member for Blackpool, North and Fleetwood (Mrs. Humble) on 5 March 2002,Official Report, column 192W.
Information is not available in the form requested. However, on 3 March 2002 some 82 people were in hospital beds in the north-west region awaiting public funding of post-hospital care, compared with 168 in August 2001. There were another 29 people awaiting domiciliary care packages of some form, compared with 45 in August 2001. It is not possible to break these down by local authority area.