§ 27. Mr. Peter Lloydasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what has been the increase in numbers of employees in the National Health Service from May 1979 to the latest available date.
§ Mr. FowlerA count of the staff employed by the NHS is taken at the end of September each year. The numbers of staff in whole-time equivalent terms in England rose from 759,700 in September 1978 to 773,400 in September 1979 and the provisional figure for September 1981 is 820,700. Thus, since 1978 the numbers have increased by 61,000–8 per cent.—and just over 47,000 of this increase occurred between September 1979 and September 1981. Nursing and midwifery staff accounted for 34,000 of the increase of 47,000 staff, reflecting Government policy to improve our health services and in particular to increase expenditure on direct services to patients.
253WA more detailed breakdown of these figures by main staff groups was given in my reply to my hon. Friend the Member for Horsham and Crawley (Mr. Hordern) on 26 March 1982.—[Vol. 20, c. 437–8.] That answer shows that the numbers employed in each of the major staff groups have grown since September 1979. The planned growth in services suggests that a further 10,000 staff will be added to the work force this year. This would mean an increase in the work force employed by the National Health Service of over 9 per cent. in four years.