§ Mr. BreedTo ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to his answer of 16 April 2002,Official Report, column 926W, on community hospitals, how much will be spent on establishing the 5,000 intermediate care beds by 2004; and what proportion of funding and beds will be allocated to rural areas. [57469]
§ Jacqui SmithThe NHS Plan announced an extra £900 million annually by 2003–04 for new intermediate care and related services to promote independence and improve quality of care for older people, together with targets for additional intermediate care beds and non-residential places and the number of people to benefit.
Full details are in the intermediate care circular HSC 2001–01: LAC (2001)1 published in January last year. Copies are available in the Library.
The proportion of funding and additional intermediate care services that will be allocated to rural areas is not known.