§ Mr. O'Halloranasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what information is available to her on wards of hospitals in the Greater London Area which are empty because of lack of staff; and what action she proposes to deal with the situation.
§ Dr. OwenThe following hospitals within the Greater London Area had wards closed on 16th March 1976 because of lack of staff:
North East Thames RHA
Barking and Havering AHA
Oldchurch Hospital—1 ward (10 beds)Little Highwood—1 ward (13 beds)Enfield and Harringey AHA
104WNorth Middlesex Hospital—2 wards (each 26–28 beds)Prince of Wales General—1 ward (28 beds)St. Ann's—4 wards (112 beds)
§ Mr. Onslowasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what is the current shortage of nursing staff at each of the general hospitals in Surrey; and what steps she is taking to deal with this situation.
§ Mr. MeacherThe figures for general geriatric and maternity hospitals managed by Districts of the Surrey Area Health Authority were as follows on 30th September 1975:
Redbridge and Waltham Forest AHA
Whipps Cross Hospital—1 ward (24 beds)Harts Hospital (TB)—1 ward (20 beds)City and East London AHA(T)
St. Andrews Hospital—1 ward (14 beds)North West Thames RHA
Hillingdon AHA
Hillingdon Hospital—1 ward (26 beds)Kensington and Chelsea and Westminster AHA(T)
St. Mary's, Harrow Road—1 ward (12 beds)South West Thames RHA
Kingston and Richmond AHA
Kingston Hospital—1 ward (17 beds)Merton, Sutton and Wandsworth AHA(T)
St. James' Hospital—2 wards (49 beds)St. Helier Hospital—1 ward (17 beds)Sutton Hospital—1 ward (15 beds)Carshalton War Memorial Hospital—1 ward (11 beds)The area health authorities concerned are taking all possible steps to recruit within the limits of their financial allocations and to deploy the available staff to best effect. Where wards are closed because of financial constraints it will be for the Area Health Authority concerned to determine the priority to be given to reopening them, but as I told my hon. Friend in my reply to his other Question today, we have decided to restrict financial growth in the four Thames regions in order to make good the relative deficiencies in other regions.
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§ Mr. O'Halloranasked the Secretary of State for Social Services how much additional room space is being sought for administrative work in the hospital service in the Greater London Area since the reorganisation of the Health Service.
§ Mr. O'Halloranasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if she is satisfied with the distribution of money allocated to the hospital service in the Greater London area; and if she will make a statement.
§ Dr. OwenThe revenue allocations for 1976–77 to the Thames regional health authorities, and to the boards of governors of the postgraduate teaching hospitals as a whole, have been based on a revised distribution formula, adopted following advice from the Resource Allocation Working Party, which has regard to relative deprivation. We have asked all regional health authorities, in distributing resources to area health authorities, to follow as far as possible similar principles.