asked the Minister for Health the disparity which exists between mental hospital death rates and (a) death rates for the general population and (b) for general hospitals.
Written Answers. - Death Rate Disparities.
94.
The movement of persons between the community and hospitals makes it impossible to identify death rates for hospital populations which might be regarded as comparable with the death rate for the entire population. However, information on the number of deaths which occur annually in the hospital categories mentioned by the Deputy is available. If deaths in hospitals are related to the number of persons treated in hospitals the death rates which emerge for 1982 — the last year for which provisional data are available — are of the order of 31.3 for general hospitals and 16.6 for psychiatric hospitals per 1,000 persons treated. The general death rate for that year was 9.4 deaths per 1,000 population.
It will be appreciated that the disparity between the death rates for hospitals and the community in general is attributable to the concentration in hospitals of persons suffering from acute health conditions, and a disproportionately high number of persons aged 65 and over.