HC Deb 08 November 1979 vol 973 cc303-4W
Mrs. Renée Short

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if, in the light of the use of the postgraduate centre at Queen Elizabeth hospital, Welwyn, for a meeting of the North Hertfordshire British Dental Association on complete dentures for private patients, he will issue a circular forbidding the use of National Health Service premises for meetings by organisations largely involved in promoting private practice.

NATIONAL HEALTH SERVICE MANPOWER—ENGLAND AS AT 30 SEPTEMBER—WHOLE-TIME EQUIVALENTS
1971 1977
wte % wte %
All directly-employed staff and independent contractors* 675,269 793,952
of which—
Administrative and clerical‡ 70,396 10.4 99,037 12.5
Medical† § and nursing and midwifery≑ 292,760 43.4 395,067 49.8
* The figures for independent contractors are numbers of general medical practitioners, general dental practitioners, ophthalmic medical practitioners, ophthalmic opticians and dispensing opticians in the general ophthalmic services and general practice pharmacists—i.e. chemists, drug stores and appliance contractors.
† The figures for general medical practitioners relate to 1 October. Some GPs are also employed on a part-time basis in the community health service and such effort is included in the totals for medical and directly-employed staff". This implies an element of double-counting. Figures for the general ophthalmic services relate to 31 December. There is a small unquantifiable number of ophthalmic medical practitioners who are also general medical practitioners, which again implies a minor element of double-counting.
‡ This includes support staff managers, but excludes ambulance officers. "Administrators" cannot be distinguished within the general category of administrative and clerical staff as there is no agreed definition of "administrator" which could be used for this purpose. Upon National Health Service reorganisation on 1 April 1974 staff previously employed by local authority health and social service departments were transferred to area health authorities. Estimates of the number of staff in this category have been made so that the figure for 1971 is as consistent as possible with that for 1977.
§ This includes whole-time equivalents of hospital and community health medical staff except locums, hospital doctors holding paragraph 89 appointments, hospital doctors holding paragraph 94 appointments, hospital practitioner appointments and community health service occasional sessional staff. Also included are numbers of general medical practitioners and ophthalmic medical practitioners.
≑ This excludes agency nurses and midwives.

Mr. Geoffrey Johnson Smith

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services what was the ratio of administrative staff to medical staff in the National Health Service for the years 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977 and 1978; and if he will give similar

Dr. Vaughan

No. Such a circular would not accord with the views of my right hon. Friend. This is a matter for local decision.