Mental Health
Scottish Parliament Written answers, 28 October 2009
Jackson Carlaw (Conservative) | Question S3W-27870
To ask the Scottish Executive how many beds there have been for (a) children and (b) adolescents in child and adolescent psychiatric wards in each year since 1999.
Shona Robison (Scottish National Party)
Information is not available by hospital ward. However, figures for child and adolescent inpatient bed numbers are provided in the following table:
| 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | |
| Child inpatient beds | 30 | 23 | 15 | 16 | 11 | 9 | 8 | 8 | 9 | 9 | 9 |
| Adolescent inpatient beds | 39 | 40 | 48 | 43 | 38 | 32 | 35 | 35 | 35 | 36 | 42 |
For children, the nine beds are provided on a national basis at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children (Yorkhill). For young people requiring inpatient care, there are currently 24 beds available in the West of Scotland, 12 beds in the East of Scotland and six beds in the North of Scotland, with ongoing consideration to increase this to 12 beds.
This potential figure of 48 beds, though less than that previously announced, reflects the significant additional investment in intensive community services intended to reduce the need for admission to inpatient care. To support this, we have made £2 million available to NHS boards on a recurring basis to accelerate the development of specialist child and adolescent mental health community services.