§ Mr. LivseyTo ask the Secretary of State for Wales what was the number of acute hospital beds available in Wales for each of the years 1979 to 1990.
§ Mr. Nicholas BennettInformation on the number of acute hospital beds is given in the following table. In order to give the full picture on trends I have added the figures from 1974–79:
Average daily available acute beds: Wales1 Number 1974 10,880 1975 10,552 1976 10,378 1977 10,425 1978 10,274 1979 10,133 1980 10,075 1981 9,971 1982 9,949 1983 9,992 1984 9,836 1985 9,810 1986 9,640 1987 9,557 1988 9,472 1989–902 9,049 1 Excludes geriatrics, younger disabled, obstetrics, GP maternity, mental illness, mental handicap, adolescent psychiatry, mental illness children, psychogeriatric and elderly mentally infirm. 2 Data from 1 April 1989 are readily available only on a financial year basis.