Hospital Beds (Hansard, 31 March 1983)

§ Mr. Geoffrey Finsberg

The average daily number of available beds in NHS hospitals in the United Kingdom during 1981 was 80 per 10,000 population. The average number of beds in private premises registered under section 3 of the Nursing Homes Act 1975 in England was about 7 per 10,000 population during this period; corresponding figures for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are not available.

Ambulance Service	NHS Patients Carried
	1979–80	1980–81	Difference per cent.	1981–82	Difference per cent.
Cleveland	246,585	276,827	+ 12.3	255,285	- 7.8
Cumbria	241,127	272,727	+ 13.1	186,871	- 31.5
Durham	271,578	275,466	+ 1.4	284,684	+ 3.3
Northumbria^*	777,918	783,595	+ 0.7	784,231	+ 0.1
Humberside	532,134	506,017	- 4.9	518,327	+ 2.4
North Yorkshire	267,769	273,249	+ 2.0	268,052	- 1.9
West Yorkshire^*	1,013,289	1,029,601	+ 1.6	1,019,518	- 1
Derbyshire	369,211	354,121	- 4.1	330,501	- 6.7
Leicestershire	276,648	276,696	+ 0.01	300,745	+ 8.7
Lincolnshire	275,294	288,941	+ 5.0	230,552	- 20.2
Nottinghamshire	387,038	400,232	+ 3.4	415,221	+ 3.7
South Yorkshire^*	376,038	425,818	+ 13.2	445,722	+ 4.7
Cambridgeshire	242,418	256,682	+ 5.9	251,876	- 1.9
Norfolk	325,918	350,338	+ 7.5	375,658	+ 7.2
Suffolk	285,775	297,857	+ 4.2	292,005	- 2
Bedfordshire	180,304	162,051	- 10.1	172,208	+ 6.3
Hertfordshire	355,381	324,760	- 8.6	346,214	+ 6.6
Essex	510,206	538,848	+ 5.6	521,811	- 3.2
East Sussex	471,301	407,097	- 13.6	468,480	+ 15.1
Kent	613,961	729,529	+ 18.8	660,047	- 9.5
Surrey	520,274	520,731	+ 0.1	537,630	+ 3.2
West Sussex	285,437	297,026	+ 4.1	319,008	+ 7.4
London Ambulance Service^*	2,700,301	2,691,873	- 0.3	2,760,750	+ 2.6
Dorset	345,709	326,878	- 5.4	345,698	+ 5.8
Hampshire	577,542	517,661	- 10.4	549,346	+ 6.1
Wiltshire	273,382	272,561	- 0.3	273,818	+ 0.5
Isle of Wight	61,971	32,857	- 47	36,522	+ 11.2
Berkshire	242,085	252,950	+ 4.5	247,957	- 2
Buckinghamshire	203,103	198,802	- 2.1	208,749	+5
Northamptonshire	231,874	234,727	+ 1.2	238,093	+ 1.4
Oxfordshire	243,040	225,838	- 7.1	215,709	- 4.5
Avon	447,117	425,325	- 4.9	422,271	- 0.7
Cornwall and Isles of Scilly	227,465	216,541	- 4.8	229,146	+ 5.8
Devon	631,170	660,665	+ 4.7	667,979	+ 1.1
Gloucestershire	282,992	297,089	+ 5.0	295,390	- 0.6
Somerset	155,720	166,245	+ 6.3	170,373	+ 2.5
Hereford and Worcester	312,318	341,445	+ 9.3	336,320	- 1.5
Salop	164,312	178,098	+ 8.4	170,622	- 4.2
Staffordshire	338,955	334,442	- 1.3	328,732	- 1.7
Warwickshire	128,516	126,529	- 1.5	131,133	+ 3.6
West Midlands^*	1,013,726	994,544	- 1.9	975,970	- 1.9
Cheshire	370,737	378,614	+ 2.1	390,990	+ 3.3
Merseyside^*	573,306	606,350	+ 5.8	607,661	+ 0.2
Lancashire	652,750	636,652	- 2.5	623,227	- 2.1
Greater Manchester^*	1,259,202	1,144,840	- 9.1	1,220,898	+ 6.6
Total NHS patients carried (England)	20,262,897	20,309,735	+ 0.2	20,432,000	+ 0.6
^* Metropolitan Service.

Notes:

1. 1982 figures returned may be lower than the actual numbers carried due to the result of industrial action.

2. Some of the reductions may be due to less use being made of the hospital car service and greater use of alternative methods of transport.

The remainder of the information requested is not available centrally.

256W

Information on hospital beds within the European Community is included in the publication World Health Statistics Annual 1981, a copy of which is in the Library of the House.