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Mental Handicap

Volume 205: debated on Wednesday 4 March 1992

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To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what arrangements for transfer of dowry funds with resettled mental handicap patients to local authorities have been made in each health board; under what terms these payments are made; and if he will list by health board the sums transferred each year on this basis.

[holding answer 7 February 1992]: Arrangements for transferring funds between health boards and local authorities were first set out in 1985 in circular NHS(GEN)18. This enabled boards to provide support finance to social work departments to develop community-based services.On 13 January this year a consultation paper was issued on cash and other transfers between health boards and local authorities. A circular will be issued after the consultation period ends on 28 February.The information sought on the amount transferred by each health board in past years is not held centrally.

To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what was the number, for each health board, of in-patient residents in health service facilities for patients with a mental handicap for each year since 1981; and what proportion of the reduction in numbers is due to discharge and what proportion due to death, for each health board.

[holding answer 7 February 1992]: The information is contained in the following tables.

Table 2: Status by 1990 of Residents in Mental Handicap Hospitals in 1981

Health Board

Percentage Died

Percentage Discharged

Percentage Still Resident

Argyll and Clyde13·054·232·8
Ayrshire and Arran8·143·248·6
Borders11·828·260·0
Fife8·443·148·5
Forth Valley14·830·055·3
Grampian15·438·446·3
Greater Glasgow17·928·553·6
Highland9·543·247·3
Lanarkshire15·426·358·3
Lothian9·740·449·9
Tayside12·342·245·4
SCOTLAND13·835·650·6

In Scotland the 1990 residents were made up of 76 per cent. from 1981 and 24 per cent. from admission since 1981.

Patients with mental handicaps resident in establishments dealing primarily with other client groups are excluded from these figures. The numbers are likely to be small.