asked the Minister for Health if he intends to close eight psychiatric hospitals; the names of the hospitals it is proposed to close; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
Written Answers. - Hospital Closures.
622.
I should point out first of all that the decision to close a mental hospital would be a matter for the health board in the first instance and in the short term context the immediate closure of a mental hospital could be contemplated if it was entirely surplus to the requirements of the service.
I am at present awaiting the report of a study group on the overall planning of psychiatric services. This report should help to clarify many of the issues arising concerning the future of these services. A sufficient range of alternative psychiatric services is not yet available in many areas of the country and will, necessarily, take a number of years to develop. In time, these services will reduce the need for hospital admissions and accelerate the reduction which is now taking place in the numbers of patients in psychiatric hospitals and in the long term will in all probability lead to the disappearance of mental hospitals as we now know them.