§ Mr. Gorstasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what is the total number of hospital beds now available in Great Britain; how many of these are allocated for private patients; and how 204W these figures compare with the same date last year.
§ Dr. OwenThe total average daily number of available hospital beds in Great Britain in 1973, the latest year for which information is available, was 489,851.
The number of beds in NHS hospitals approved for use by private patients at 31st December 1973 was 5,018. There has been no change in the number since then.
Comparable figures for 1972 were 501,100 and 4,969 respectively.