§ Mr. Willie W. Hamiltonasked the Secretary of State for Scotland what percentage of total nursing staff in National Health Service hospitals was engaged exclusively in the care of the mentally ill and handicapped in each of the last five years; what these figures represented in terms of staff per 100 patients; and what were the comparable figures for other National Health Service services.
§ Mr. John MacKayFor the National Health Service in Scotland, this information is as follows:
1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 (a) Psychiatric nurses as percantage all hospital nurses. Mental Illness* 14.9 14.7 14.7 14.5 14.4 Mental Handicap 5.2 5.2 5.3 5.2 5.3 (b) Nursing staff per 100 average occupied beds. Mental Illness 61.5 64.5 68.8 70.1 71.8 Mental Handicap 51.5 55.2 59.7 60.9 63.1 Maternity 234.5 250.3 268.4 287.7 306.9 General 134.3 140.4 146.2 151.5 151.1 * Since 1982 the first 18 months of all student nurse training has been generic in nature. Because of this some mental illness students may have been recorded as general students with the result that statistics for mental illness students are understated and those for general students overstated.