§ Mr. Pendryasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what was the ratio of (a) hospital beds and (b) qualified nurses per head of population and per patient for each of the past 10 years.
NHS hospitals in England 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 Average daily numbers of available beds per 1,000 population 8.3 8.2 8.1 7.9 7.7 7.6 7.5 7.4 7.3 7.1 Percentage of available beds occupied* 80.7 81.1 81.4 81.1 81.1 81.3 81.3 80.4 80.6 80.5 Qualified hospital nurses and midwives at 30 September (whole time equivalents)† 139,200 145,500 150,500 155,600 158,300 164,100 175,100 181,600 184,700 188,500 Qualified hospital nurses and midwives per 1,000 population 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.4 3.4 3.5 3.7 3.9 3.9 4.0 Average daily number of occupied beds†* 312,700 310,800 306,200 299,500 293,300 289,500 285,900 279,800 276,400 269,300 * Occupancy figures are based on a midnight count and do not include patients who do not stay overnight in hospital. † Rounded to the nearest hundred.