§ Sir R. Glynasked the Minister of Labour whether he is in a position to make a statement regarding the supply of trained nurses and midwives as a result of the registration recently carried out by his Department?
§ Mr. McCorquodaleJust over 400,000 persons have registered under the Nurses and Midwives (Registration for Employment) Order, 1943. Of these approximately 270,000 were engaged at the time of registration in some form of nursing or midwifery work as shown in the attached 2469W table. About 130,000 were not engaged in such work, and it is expected that most of these, on account of age, family responsibilities or for some other reason, will prove not to be available to return to the nursing or midwifery services. My hon. Friend will appreciate that any approach to the problem of satisfying the demands for nurses and midwives must include the recruitment of additional persons, at present untrained in such work, the re-distribution where necessary of persons already performing these services and the return to the nursing and midwifery services of experienced persons not at present practising. A number of measures, including the recent registration, have already been taken or decided upon to enable the Ministry of Labour and National Service to deal with these different aspects of the problem. Interviewing both of persons registered recently and of those who came forward in response to the recent publicity appeal began at the appointments offices of the Department in June and during June and July nearly 2,000 nursing and midwifery vacancies have been filled.
Following is the table:
Persons Registered under the Nurses and Midwives (Registration for Employment) Order 1943 who at the date of registration were engaged in some form of nursing or midwifery work.
Service. Women. Men. Hospital Service (including nursing homes) 169,956 15,288 Public Health Services 22,264 270 Private Nurses 10,714 731 Nurses holding administrative and analogous posts outside hospitals for which nursing qualifications are required 1,820 140 Nurses and other persons engaged on nursing duties at First Aid Posts, etc. 15,642 3,020 Other nurses (e.g. nurses working in Doctors' surgeries, etc.) 1,377 44 Nursery Nurses, (Certificated and Nursery trained Nurses) 8,808 53 Christian Science Nurses 111 5 Midwifery Services 16,479 —