Mr. Jim Callaghanasked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many nursing staff vacancies remain unfilled in the hospitals within the North-West regional health authority.
§ Sir George YoungThis information is not collected by the Department or by the North-Western regional health authority. The Manpower Services Commission holds figures for vacancies notified to jobcentres in an area roughly equivalent to that covered by the regional health authority, but these do not distinguish vacancies for hospital nursing staff from those for community nurses. Its latest available figures for the North-West indicate that there were 65 vacancies for qualified nursing staff in December 1980.