HC Deb 27 January 1981 vol 997 cc382-3W
Mr. Hordern

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services whether, using the same table as appeared in the November 1980 issue of Economic Trends, page 104, he will publish a table showing the number of doctors and nurses included in the numbers employed in the National Health Service.

Dr. Vaughan

It is not possible to produce separate figures of the number of doctors and nurses employed in the National Health Service on the same basis as those used in the table which appeared on page 104 of the November 1980 issue ofEconomic Trends. Those figures are based on a return to the Department of Employment made by all NHS employing authorities as a contribution to the general picture of employment in the United Kingdom, and are merely a head-count of all full-time and part-time employees. They are not broken down by staf group. The figures cannot be accurately translated into whole-time equivalents, the measure of NHS manpower normally used by this Department.

Tables of NHS manpower in terms of whole-time equivalents and by staff group are available in the Library of the House.