§ Mr. Lawrenceasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what was the average daily number of National Health Service patients in hospital in 1975 excluding those who were below 18 years of age, above pensionable age and those in amenity beds.
§ Dr. OwenThe latest years for which analysis by age is available are 1973 for non-psychiatric hospitals and 1974 for psychiatric hospitals. For the former, the estimated average number of inpatients was 71,500 and for the latter 83,000. Both figures are for England and Wales and comprise men between the ages of 18 and 64 and women between the ages of 18 and 59.
It is not possible to exclude patients in amenity beds from these totals. In 1974, the average number of patients in such beds in all NHS hospitals in England and Wales was 600.