§ 29. Mr. Pavittasked the Minister of Health if he will publish in the OFFICIAL REPORT a table showing the establishment totals and persons in post in the categories of trained nurses, student nurses, midwives, pupil midwives, enrolled nurses and pupil nurses.
§ Mr. BraineEstablishment figures for nursing and midwifery staff are not centrally available. I will circulate in the OFFICIAL REPORT a table showing the numbers in post at the latest available dates.
§ Mr. PavittIs the Joint Parliamentary Secretary aware of the difficulty which hon. Members have in keeping check of this situation since nursing appointments offices were closed by the Minister of Labour in August 1962? Will he do something about giving us the establishment, because there is no way in which we can have a comparative check on the people in post unless we can measure them against the establishment? Will he not, in view of the need to increase the number of nursing staff, consider giving extra payments for weekend duties?
§ Mr. BraineThere are difficulties in trying to organise the collection of central statistics in this way. I can tell the hon. Gentleman—and I think this is really what he is after—that over the past decade the number of hospital whole-time nursing staff increased by 17.5 per cent. and part-time nursing staff more than doubled. The corresponding figures for midwifery staff showed an increase of 23.4 per cent. and 79 per cent., respectively. In short, the totals available now for hospital nursing, midwifery staff, enrolled nurses, student nurses, pupil nurses and certified midwives are all at record levels.
§ Mr. MarshIs the hon. Gentleman really suggesting that he knows how 896 many nurses have been enrolled but has no idea how many he wants?
§ Mr. BraineStandards, of course, vary from area to area. They are fixed locally. This is the difficulty in collecting statistics centrally. They are fixed locally on varying and unknown criteria. To collect such information from about 2,600 hospitals and 150 local health authorities would be a very heavy undertaking of doubtful value. But I will say this, that we are conducting studies into the use of nurses in hospitals. It is impossible to arrive at any firm figure as to establishment.
§ The information is as follows:
| NURSING AND MIDWIFERY STAFF (ENGLAND AND WALES) | ||
| Hospitals | Numbers in Post on 30th September, 1963 | |
| Whole-time | Part-time | |
| Registered Nurses | 55,320 | 18,978 |
| Enrolled Nurses | 10,502 | 7,482 |
| Student Nurses | 55,661 | — |
| Pupil Nurses | 8,546 | — |
| Certified Midwives | 6,511 | 2,092 |
| Pupil Midwives | 4,603 | — |
| Local Health Authorities | Numbers in post in whole-time Equivalents, December, 1962 | Actual Numbers in Post (31st December, 1962) | |
| Whole-time | Part-time | ||
| Midwifery Staff. | 5,397 | 15,294 | 6,699 |
| Health Visitors (including Clinic Nurses) | 5,817 | ||
| Home Nurses | 7,774 |