Notifiable Communicable Diseases (Hansard, 28 October 1985)

§ Mr. Meacher

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services what is (a) the number and category of suspected and confirmed cases of notifiable communicable diseases, (b) the number of special beds designated and their location and (c) the number of registered fever nurses or

Average number of daily available infectious disease and tropical medicine^* beds in NHS hospitals in England
Region^†	1974	1975	1976	1977	1978	^*1979	1980	1981	^†1982	1983	1984
Northern	143	152	137	122	131	111	97	72	64	63	49
Yorkshire	360	321	281	248	240	235	218	213	203	184	178
Trent	186	189	187	173	176	125	110	109	101	90	88
East Anglian	99	96	95	101	91	85	95	74	66	65	49
North West Thames	249	251	232	144	158	152	121	117	115	107	70
North East Thames	312	313	291	266	222	261	233	226	203	196	194
South East Thames	236	224	155	134	133	112	96	89	85	73	62
South West Thames	143	85	94	71	68	66	69	68	64	68	66
Wessex	111	105	99	104	88	71	61	57	53	52	55
Oxford	50	52	42	42	34	34	34	34	26	25	23
South Western	93	90	94	86	85	68	60	61	51	51	48
West Midlands	289	262	240	239	215	200	189	186	185	167	156
Mersey	177	173	173	169	157	140	110	110	123	97	47
North Western	250	261	227	219	218	181	170	135	123	114	101
Special Health Authorities and
Boards of Governors	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
England	2,698	2,574	2,347	2,118	2,016	1,840	1,662	1,551	1,461	1,351	1,184
^* Tropical medicine was not a separately identified specialty until 1979 and hence, figures prior to this year are for infectious disease beds only.
^† Because of NHS restructuring in 1982 the regional figures are not strictly comparable over the whole period.

NHS registered fever nurses at 30 September
	Whole-time equivalent^*
Region	^†1980	1981	1982	1983	1984
Northern	13	13	13	14	15
Yorkshire	0	6	5	4	4
Trent	5	4	2	2	2
East Anglian	1	1	2	5	5
North West Thames	0	1	2	2	3
North East Thames	4	5	5	7	3
South East Thames	5	5	4	3	3
South West Thames	2	2	1	1	1
Wessex	2	2	3	3	4
Oxford	0	0	0	1	1
South Western	3	3	2	1	1
West Midlands	3	4	4	3	2
Mersey	2	2	2	2	2
North Western	9	9	10	9	8
Special Health Authorities and
Boards of Governors	0	0	0	0	0
England	48	56	56	56	53
^* Owing to rounding the sum of the component figures may not agree with the total.
^† The number of nurses qualified at this level were not separately identified prior to 1980.

374W

their successors employed in the National Health Service, for each district and regional health authority in each of the past 10 years.

§ Mr. Whitney

Data on notifications of communicable diseases for each Regional Health Authority are published in annual volumes of "Communicable Disease Statistics" for the years 1979 to 1983 and its predecessor "Statistics of Infectious Diseases" for the years 1974 to 1978. Copies of these publications are held in the Library. Numbers of suspected cases are not routinely aggregated. The information is not available at district health authority level.

Information about the number of beds available in the specialities of infectious diseases and tropical medicine and the number of registered fever nurses is given in the tables. The register of fever nurses has been closed since 1967. Some registered general nurses undertake special post-basic training in this area but information on the number of staff thus qualified is not held centrally.