§ Sir E. Graham-Littleasked the Minister of Health how many beds in hospitals in England and Wales now remain vacant for lack of staff as compared with the figure of one-ninth given by him for March, 1948; what is the proportion of beds which are staffed but vacant at the 7W present time as compared with the figure of one-eleventh for March, 1948; and what is the explanation of the latter position, in view of the pressure on beds now crippling all the hospitals.
§ Mr. BevanMy information is that at 30th June, 1948, the latest date for which8W figures are available, the number of beds vacant and unstaffed was 57,310; this is a little less than one-ninth of the total beds. The proportion of beds staffed but vacant remained at one-eleventh, which is about the normal proportion of vacancies due to turnover.