§ Ms. QuinTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will publish figures for patients-staff ratios for paediatric care in National Health Service hospitals in the years 1976 and 1986.
§ Mrs. Currie[holding answer 9 November 1987]: Manpower statistics cover staff in post working in hospitals and are collected at a particular point in time; but they do not differentiate between types of activities within the hospital.
The information presented in the tables is in terms of staff employed and patients treated; ratios have not been calculated as comparable figures for the earlier year are not available.
Table 1 NHS Paediatric Staff1 Whole Time Equivalent2 (30/9/86)— England Staff 1976 1981 1986 Medical and Dental3 4 1,410 1,840 2,080 Nursing —5 7,820 9,260
Table 2 Cases Treated in NHS Consultant Paediatric Departments Cases 1976 1981 1986 In-patients 246,040 304,560 379,790 Day patients 14,550 19,040 29,790 New Out-patients 173,710 191,740 238,720 Total Out-patients 1,020,400 1,127,330 1,303,620 1 Defined by speciality/occupation code on payroll records. 2 Figures are independently rounded to nearest 10 whole time equivalent. 3 Permanent paid and honorary staff. 4 Includes Paediatric—surgery, neurology, dentistry. 5 Unavailable centrally for 1976, 1981 is the earliest year for which figures of this detail are available.