§ Mr. Pikeasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what is the ratio of National Health Service beds to population by region for the latest month for which figures are available; and what were the comparative figures for 1979 and 1983.
§ Mr. Whitney[pursuant to his reply, 30 April 1986, c. 436]: The available information is given in the table. Since it can be misleading to consider bed figures alone, I have included national figures for the number of cases treated.
National Health Services Hospitals in England Average daily number of available beds per thousand population Region 1979 1983 1984 Northern 8.1 8.0 7.9 Yorkshire 8.3 7.8 7.6 Trent 6.9 6.6 6.5 East Anglian 7.0 6.8 6.6 North West Thames *8.l 7.3 7.1 North East Thames *7.8 7.7 7.5 South East Thames *7.9 7.4 7.0 South West Thames *8.9 8.0 7.8 Wessex 7.0 6.5 6.4 Oxford 6.0 5.4 5.3 South Western 8.0 7.6 7.3 West Midlands 7.0 6.7 6.5 Mersey 8.9 8.2 7.8 North Western 7.6 7.6 7.4 England 7.7 7.3 7.1 Inpatient discharges and deaths (millions) England 5.4 6.0 6.2 * Figures for the Thames regions for 1979 are not strictly comparable with those for 1983 and 1985 because of changes made in the National Health Service reorganisation of 1982.