§ Sir B. Rhys Williamsasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what estimate he has made of the shortage of nursing staff compared with the establishment of the London teaching hospitals.
Dr. DunwoodyNo meaningful estimate can be made because there is no generally accepted yardstick for determining nursing staff requirements.
§ Mr. Bishopasked the Secretary of State for Social Services (1) if he will give the figures relating to the need for qualified and student nurses in each category of the hospital services; and if he will encourage hospital authorities to be less rigid in their demands in order that more qualified married women may be encouraged to return to the service;
(2) if he will state the figures indicating the shortage of nurses in each category 236W of the hospital services; and if he will give further consideration to the need for hospitals to take further steps to attract qualified married nurses into their service.
Dr. DunwoodyThere is no generally accepted basis for estimating the numbers required; more are needed for improving and developing the hospital service but existing staff also need to be deployed more effectively. Hospital authorities have been given advice on the recruitment, welfare and refresher training of married women returning to nursing, the growing number of part-time staff consists largely of married women. It my hon. Friend will let me have evidence of rigidity in the demands of individual hospital authorities, I will look into it.
§ Mr. Bishopasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will take further action to encourage doctors to work in Great Britain, in particular by enabling young doctors to have married quarters in or near hospitals, by having ancillary departments for keeping medicine up to date for medical practitioners, and for the extension of group-practice facilities and the use of health centres.
§ Mr. CrossmanA number of important improvements in the working conditions of hospital doctors and general practitioners have already been made and my aim is to improve these still further in consultation with representatives of the profession. Hospital authorities have been advised on ways in which they can improve and expand their residential accommodation for young doctors and where possible, for their wives and families. Good accommodation for both married and single doctors is being provided in new hospitals. There has been a notable expansion in the facilities for postgraduate medical education in recent years particularly through the development of postgraduate centres at district general hospitals. These centres assist in the continuing education of both general medical practitioners and hospital doctors. The number of attendances by general practitioners at university approved refresher courses continues to grow rapidly. There are now financial arrangements designed to encourage family doctors to practise in groups and from modern purpose built premises, and I am considering whether these can be 237W further improved. Encouraging progress had been made in the development of health centres; details of this are given in my reply to my hon. Friend's separate question on this subject.
§ Mr. Bishopasked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many doctors and nurses are employed in the hospital service, and how many are immigrants; and if he will give the figures for immigrants from Northern Ireland and Eire, respectively.
§ Mr. CrossmanThe latest available figures for National Health Service hospitals in England and Wales are:
DOCTORS Number of doctors, excluding locums, at 30th September, 1969 24,131 Number born— (a) in Northern Ireland or the Irish Republic (separate figures are not available) 745 (b) outside the United Kingdom and the Irish Republic 8,055 NURSES Total number of nursing and midwifery staff at 31st March, 1969 275,180 Number of student and pupil nurses and pupil midwives at 31st March, 1969 74,347 Number of student andpupil nurses and pupil midwives in post at 31st December, 1968 who were born— (a) in the Irish Republic 2,881 of whom 1,796 were in their country of birth when they applied for training. (b) outside the United Kingdom and the Irish Republic. 15,827 of whom 8,026 were in their country of birth when they applied for training. Statistics on the country of birth of other grades of nursing and midwifery staff and on the number born in Northern Ireland are not available.