§ Mr. Gregoryasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what is the number of private hospitals which offer acute surgical care and the number of beds and the occupancy rate for all facilities offering such care by region in each of the last five years.
§ Mr. Kenneth Clarke[pursuant to his reply, 1 February 1985, c. 359]: The available information is given in the table. This type of information is not available centrally for 1979 or 1980. We do not collect information on bed occupancy centrally.
345W
Region Number of institutions* Total number of beds in the institutions* 1981 1982 1983 1981 1982 1983 Oxford 10 12 12 359 454 452 South Western 10 10 10 378 375 386 West Midlands 10 18 17 300 601 578 Mersey 6 8 8 306 305 316 North Western 7 9 12 365 444 543 England 144 178 189 6,601 7,663 8,238 * Figures for 1982 and 1983 are based on a routine statistical return introduced in 1982 and relate to premises with operating theatres on 31 December each year. Figures for 1981 are based on an ad-hoc inquiry and relate to premises providing acute surgical and medical care in June 1981; they are therefore not strictly comparable with those for later years. † Because of NHS restructuring in 1982, figures for these regions are not directly comparable between 1981 and subsequent years.