HC Deb 03 July 1978 vol 953 c68W
Mr. Hardy

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many people are employed by the Rotherham Area Health Authority; how many have medical or nursing qualifications; and how many such posts are currently unfilled.

Mr. Moyle

At 31st March 1978 3,338 people were employed, of whom 149 had medical qualifications and 826 had, or There are some 35 casual vacancies at were studying for, nursing qualifications, present.

Mr. Hardy

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services by what date he expects the allocation of National Health Service resources to the Rotherham Area Health Authority to reach the national average standard of provision.

Mr. Moyle

The report of the Resource Allocation Working Party, whose recommendations I have broadly accepted for the distribution of resources to health authorities in England, noted that "target" measures of relative need for resources for hospital and community health services took no account of a number of unquantified factors. The speed of progress towards fairer sharing of resources is conditioned by the total amounts available nationally for these services year by year and the time required to plan the effective redeployment of resources without damage to important existing services.