§ Mr. GillTo ask the Secretary of State for Health if she will list the number of staff employed in each of the regional health authority offices.
§ Dr. MawhinneyThe numbers of staff employed by regional health authorities—RHAs—are not directly comparable as some centrally manage NHS Supplies, blood transfusion, and ambulance services, as well as directly employing consultants and registrars for the health service in their region. Excluding these centrally maintained functions, we estimate a total of some 7,850 whole-time equivalent staff were employed by RHAs on 1 July 1992 or an average of 560 staff each. The number of each RHA is in the table:
Number Northern 656 Yorkshire 518 Trent 509 East Anglian 292 North West Thames 361 North East Thames 580 South East Thames 604 South West Thames 611 Wessex 331 Oxford 567 South Western 559 West Midlands 1,168 Mersey 313 North Western 785 TOTAL 7,854