Armed Forces: Mental Health Services

Dr. Fox
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence (1) what the expenditure of his Department has been on payments to the Priory Group for mental health treatment of service personnel in each year since 2003;

(2) how many service personnel have received mental health treatment from the Priory Group in each year since 2003.

Mr. Bob Ainsworth
In-patient care for service personnel with mental health problems is provided in specialised psychiatric units under a contract with the Priory Group. An interim arrangement was signed with the Priory Group commencing in December 2003. The full contract, whereby the Priory Group became the default provider of in-patient mental health provision, commenced on 1 April 2004.

The data requested, up until 30 September 2007, can be found in the following table:

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|                                 |Number of patients treated|Contract value (£ million)|
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|1 December 2003 to 31 March 2004 |58                        |0.4                       |
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|1 April 2004 to 31 March 2005    |321                       |4.2                       |
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|1 April 2005 to 31 March 2006    |351                       |4.5                       |
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|1 April 2006 to 31 March 2007    |305                       |3.4                       |
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|1 April 2007 to 30 September 2007|160                       |1.9                       |
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These figures take into account the cost of assessing patients as well as any treatment programmes provided; the individual care needs of each patient will vary depending on their particular medical circumstances.

The Priory contract replaced the care provided by MOD’s Duchess of Kent Psychiatric Hospital at Catterick, whose costs in its final year of operation were some £10 million.