Mental Illness Hospital Beds

EDM number 298 in 1990-91, proposed by William Ross on 16/01/1991.

That this House, alarmed by the reduction in mental illness hospital beds from 63,000 in 1988-89 to the 37,350 announced by the Under Secretary of State for Health in November 1990, which is already causing an increase in the number of homeless and a consequent strain on the police, calls on the Secretary of State for Health for a halt to reductions in the number of these beds and for an urgent review by the Secretaries of State for Health, the Environment and Home Affairs to ensure that in-patient care can be offered or continued for those patients whose need for specialist care cannot be met in the community, in line with Government policy in Circular HC(90)23/HASSL(90)11, published in September 1990.

This motion has been signed by a total of 54 MPs.