§ Mr. Mike Thomasasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will publish in the Official Report the statistics and calculations on which he bases his statement, Official Report, 15 March, c. 122, that the number of doctors and dentists has risen by 4,000 and of nurses and midwives by 45,000 since May 1979, distinguishing between doctors, dentists, nurses and midwives, respectively, between those working within the National Health Service and elsewhere, between those in the hospital and community health services and in family practitioner services and between whole-time nurse and midwife equivalents and actual numbers on the payroll.
§ Mr. Geoffrey FinsbergThe figures quoted by my right hon. Friend to which the hon. Member refers related to directly employed staff in hospital and community health services. They did not cover the family practitioner services. The basis of the figures quoted, which 'were rounded, is as follows:
Whole-time equivalents 1978 1982* Increase Doctors† 32,100 35,500 3,400 Dentists† 2,400 2,500 100 34,500 38,000 ‡3,500 Nurses║ 330,800 N/A N/A Midwives║ 20,200 N/A N/A 351,000 396,100 ¶45,100 * Provisional. † Excluding locum staff. ‡ Rounded to 4,000. ║ Including agency staff. ¶ Rounded to 45,000. The corresponding number of nursing and midwifery staff at 30 September 1982 was about 455,000, the figure for 1978 is not available.