§ Mr. John Pageasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what have been the numbers and the total and average cost per head of temporary nursing staff in hospitals as compared with the equivalent figures for full-time nursing staff in similar establishments for each of the last 10 years.
§ Dr. VaughanInformation on nursing staff temporarily employed in NHS hospitals is not available centrally. Costs of full-time and part-time staff are not separately collected by the Department. The numbers of full-time and part-time NHS hospital nursing staff in England in the last 10 years were as follows:
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Number of NHS hospital nursing staff* at 30 September in England Year Full-time Part-time (number) number WTE‡ 1970† 165,315 91,716 57,765 1971† 170,227 100,061 62,409
Year Full-time Part-time (number) number WTE‡ 1972† 180,937 105,007 67,433 1973† 182,116 109,607 69,662 1974† 182,134 119,715 74,637 1975† 197,724 134,470 82,977 1976 204,347 131,151 80,752 1977 207,093 128,160 78,947 1978 211,814 131,143 80,042 1979 215,447 135,282 82,237 * Excludes nursing cadets and agency nurses, includes all other qualified and unqualified nursing staff. † Includes some area and district administrative nursing staff for the years prior to 1976. ‡ Whole-time equivalent.