§ Mr. NellistTo ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will publish a table to show the average number of national health service beds in use in each year since 1979.
§ Mr. DorrellI refer the hon. Member to the statistical bulletin of 2 October 1990, "NHS hospital activity statistics for England 1979–1989/90", copies of which are available in the Library. More important than the number of beds is the number of patients treated each year. This has increased by more than one third since 1979.