Mr. Ron Brownasked the Secretary of Stale for Scotland what is the current number of qualified nursing staff in the Lothian health board area; what were the corresponding staff figures for 1980, 1981, 1982 and 1983; and how many vacancies currently exist.
§ Mr. John MacKayThe numbers of qualified nursing staff in the Lothian health board area were:
At 30 September Number of qualified staff Wholetime equivalent 1980 4,842 4,159.7 1981 5,080 4,367.8 1982 5,426 4,683.4 1983 5,568 4,852.6 1984 5,550 *4,859.1 * Provisional. I understand that there were 120 vacancies at mid-October 1984.