Mentally Handicapped People

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what was, for hospital services for the mentally handicapped in Northern Ireland, the number of nursing staff per occupied bed, expenditure after allowing

Mentally handicapped
	1976–77	1977–78	1978–79	1979–80	1980–81	1981–82	1982–83	1983–84	1984–85	1985–86	1986–87
Number of occupied in-patient beds	1,382	1,390	1,397	1,398	1,387	1,425	1,393	1,374	1,367	1,361	1,289
Number of nursing staff per occupied bed	n.a.	0·65	0·71	0·70	0·74	0·77	0·76	0·81	0·79	0·77	0·78
Expenditure adjusted to allow for:	£	£	£	£	£	£	£	£	£	£	£
1. General Inflation	14,209,491	15,048,243	15,888,936	16,438,431	17,923,363	18,364,878	18,253,126	18,237,036	18,240,959	17,941,004	17,831,572
2. H&CHS inflation	15,268,819	16,960,311	18,089,323	18,149,215	18,330,806	19,080,250	19,096,280	19,001,234	18,765,705	18,590,371	17,813,572

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will give the discharge rates for National Health Service hospitals in Northern Ireland, as a whole and for each area board, stating these as a rate per 10,000 resident population, for the years 1983, 1984, 1985 and 1986.

The discharge rates for the Health Service hospitals, excluding hospitals for the mentally ill and mentally handicapped are:

	1983	1984	1985	1986
Northern Ireland	1,623	1,630	1,705	1,665
Eastern Board	2,143	2,149	2,272	2,151
Northern Board	1,011	1,025	1,071	1,129
Southern Board	1,354	1,373	1,429	1,420
Western Board	1,524	1,513	1,537	1,519

Deaths are included in the discharge rates.

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will give the number of patients leaving mental illness hospitals and units after a stay of five or more years in Northern Ireland and by area board in the years 1983, 1984, 1985 and 1986.

The numbers of discharges and deaths are:

	1983	1984	1985	1986
Northern Ireland	186	205	197	199
Eastern Board	90	85	81	118
Northern Board	28	19	27	24
Southern Board	12	30	25	15
Western Board	56	71	64	42

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will make a statement in tabular form containing information, broken down by health and social services boards in Northern Ireland, on identifiable for general inflation espenditure after allowing for hospital and community healthy service inflation and the number of occupied in-patient beds in each year since 1976–77

:The information requested is as follows:improvements in services in the National Health Service since 1983, the resources which have been made available for such service improvements and the monitoring by the Department of Health and Social Services, Northern Ireland, and health boards to ensure that money allocated for service improvements is spent on them; and if he will give information for Northern Ireland as a whole.

This information is not readily available and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost. The operational planning system, including the annual accountability reviews, is the process through which the Department determines the global allocations for each board, agrees the targets and objectives for the year ahead and in time reviews progress towards these.

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what are his Department's guidelines for acute service targets in the following priority areas: coronary bypass, hip operations, bone marrow transplants, cataract operations and end stage renal failures; what progress has been made so far in meeting these targets; what further progress he expects health and social services boards to make within existing resources; and if he will make a statement.

The targets which are set out in the regional strategy (1987–1992) published last August are as follows:

Coronary by-pass—450 by-pass operations included in a target of 750 for cardiac surgery.

Hip operations—reduction of average waiting time for admission to hospital from nine months to six months.

End State Renal Failure—acceptance rate for treatment of 50 new patients per million by 1990. Bone Marrow Transplants—12 operations per year. It has not been thought necessary to set targets for cataract operations.

As we are only one year into the strategy, it is too soon to expect significant improvements but I am currently reviewing progress through the present round of accountability reviews. I am confident that the target will be met.

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will give figures for progress towards acute sector targets for Northern Ireland for 1983, 1986–87 and 1990.

The regional strategy for the health and personal social services 1987–1992 published in August 1987 establishes bed targets for the acute hospital sector based on 1983 data. The target for 1992 is 6,250 beds overall and by the end of 1987 the figure was 6,690.

Volume 136: debated on Monday 27 June 1988