§ Sir E. Graham-Littleasked the Minister of Health if he is aware that while there were 9,000 nurses in employment in the prewar year, that number has grown to 13,000; that a conservative estimate places the minimum figure now required at 30,000; that, while at the voluntary hospitals there are long waiting lists, at 207W the municipal hospitals large numbers of beds have been closed for lack of nursing staff; that this disparity in the attraction exercised by these two types of service is due to the uniform rate of pay in all branches of that service occasioned by the Rushcliffe Report; and what proposals he has to increase the incentives for nurses to enlist in the municipal hospitals in a ratio proportionate to the number in the voluntary hospitals.
§ Mr. BevanThe whole question of recruiting sufficient hospital nursing staff will be reviewed when I receive the report of the Working Party on the Recruitment and Training of Nurses. In the meantime, every effort is being made to increase the number employed and much help is being obtained from part-time nurses. The shortage is by no means confined to the municipal service.