§ Mr. Pawseyasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will publish in the Official Report the number of beds available in the National Health Service at the present time; and how this compares with 1979.
§ Mrs. CurrieIn 1985, the latest year for which information is available centrally, the average daily number of available beds in National Health Service hospitals in England was 325,487. The corresponding figure for 1979 was 361,670. The number of in-patient cases treated per available bed per year increased from 14.9 to 19.5 between 1979 and 1985. The number of inpatient cases treated in 1979 was 5,400,120 compared with 6,353,812 in 1985.