§ 22 Dr. PughTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans the Government have to increase the number of mental health beds in the NHS. [75373]
§ Jacqui SmithExtra central investment enabled the creation of over 500 additional secure beds and 320 24-hour staffed beds by April 2001. There are also NHS plan commitments, which we expect to achieve, to develop 200 long-term secure mental health beds and 140 beds for dangerous people with severe personality disorder by 2004. The main thrust of our policy, however, is to develop community services that can safely treat most mental health patients without hospital admission.