asked the Secretary of State for Social Services to which hospital psychogeriatric and psychiatric patients from the Rother Valley constituency will be admitted since such admission to Sheffield hospitals is apparently no longer possible; and what extra provision is being urgently made by the Rotherham area health authority.

Psychogeriatric and psychiatric patients in the Rotherham health area are admitted to Rotherham district general hospital or Swallownest hospital for hospital treatment. There are two unopened psychiatric wards at the district general hospital, but the area health authority is unable to open them at present because of financial and staff recruitment difficulties; I understand that the AHA has arranged a meeting to discuss this problem with the RHA next month. People requiring psychiatric care who are not admitted to hospital are cared for in the community by the primary care and specialist community psychiatric nursing teams.