Hospital Beds

HC Deb 15 December 1969 vol 793 cc897-8

8. Mr. Lane

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many new hospital beds, either in new hospitals or by expansion of existing hospitals, are coming into use during the current year; and what is the average cost per bed.

Dr, John Dunwoody

Hospital building schemes costing £75,000 or more completed in 1969 will provide about 4,900 modern beds. The cost per bed varies greatly depending on the type of hospital and the services provided and averages can be misleading. £8,000 (plus fees, equipment and land costs) represents an average figure per bed for a typical complete district general hospital.

Mr. Lane

Although those figures are welcome, is it not also vital that the percentage of occupancy of total beds, which has been declining for the last five years, should be increased again? Does not this underline the urgency of improving salaries for the nursing profession?

Dr. Dunwoody

Bed occupancy and nurses' salaries are different questions, one of which comes up on the Order Paper later. The hospital building programme has expanded considerably in recent years. We are spending five times as much in the current year as was being spent ten years ago.

13. Mr. Kenneth Baker

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services what estimate he has made of the number of hospital beds which are now empty because of a shortage of staff in the hospitals concerned.

Dr. John Dunwoody

This information is not available centrally.

Mr. Baker

Is the Under-Secretary aware that since 1964 both the number of hospital beds and their occupancy have declined? At the moment there are probably thousands of hospital beds empty. To what extent is this due to a shortage of doctors and nurses?

Dr. Dunwoody

The figure the hon. Gentleman gives includes psychiatric hospital beds; and there has been a dramatic change in psychiatry, in that more patients are now treated outside hospital. Comparing the present picture with 1962, there has been an increase in the number of non-psychiatric hospital beds. There has also been a quite dramatic increase in the number of in-patients treated, from just over 4¼ million in 1962 to well over 5 million in 1968. This, together with the increased number of nurses employed in hospitals, shows a very different picture from that which the hon. Gentleman was painting for the House.