§ 50. Mr. Dempseyasked the Secretary of State for Scotland if he is aware that newly upgraded hospital wards lay closed during the winter because of the acute shortage of nursing staff: and what steps he proposes to take to recruit more nurses, to ensure the fullest use of hospital beds.
§ Mr. RossI am not aware of any major delays in opening newly upgraded wards because of staffing difficulties. The number of nurses employed both on a whole-time and part-time basis in the National Health Service has never been higher, but we aim at still further improvements and a nation-wide publicity campaign to recruit more nurses was started last autumn and is showing good results.