§ Mr. Campbell-Savoursasked the Secretary of State for Social Services (1) whether he will make a statement as to his policy towards the role of agency nurses in meeting the demand for nursing manpower in the National Health Service;
(2) what efforts the Government are making to reduce the need to call upon the services of agency nurses.
§ Mr. NewtonCircular HC(83)2 recognised that whilst nursing posts in the National Health Service should ideally be filled with directly employed full and part-time staff in order to ensure maximum continuity of patient care, reduction of management and supervision difficulties and provision of clinical training for nurse learners, suitable qualified staff are not always available in the particular locality. Where recruitment difficulties are encountered or where particular short term needs arise, the use of qualified staff from nurses' agencies can prove valuable.
The number employed in England at September 1985 was 4,120, about 1 per cent. of the total nursing and midwifery staff. However the number of agency nurses employed in the NHS has fluctuated over the years with large fluctuations between quarters in the same year.
§ Mr. Campbell-Savoursasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what was the proportion of the national nursing budget which was given to agency nursing in the years: (a) 1979–80, (b) 1980–81, (c) 1981–82, (d) 1982–83, (e) 1983–84, (f) 1984–85 and (g) 1985–86, respectively.
§ Mr. NewtonFollowing is the information, derived from the annual accounts of health authorities in England:
Expenditure on non-NHS staff (Agency etc)—Nursing: as percentage of total salaries and wages expenditure—Nursing Year Per cent. 1979–80 1.81 1980–81 1.89 1981–82 1.69 1982–83 1.26 1983–84 1.07 1984–85 1.31 1985–861 1.57 1 Provisional figure.
§ Mr. Campbell-Savoursasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what proportion of nursing manpower within the National Health Service is provided by agency nurses.
§ Mr. NewtonThe number of agency nursing and midwifery staff employed in England at September 1985 was 4,120 in wholetime equivalent terms; about 1.0 per cent. of the total nursing and midwifery staff at that date.
§ Mr. Dobsonasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will give for the latest available year the expenditure of each district health authority and special health authority on agency nursing and if he will give the totals for (a) Inner London, (b) Greater London, (c) each region and (d) England.
§ Mr. Newton[pursuant to his reply, 8 December 1986, c. 48–9]: Following are the provisional figures shown by the annual accounts of health authorities for 1985–86: 573W
574W
Expenditure on non-National Health Service staff (agency etc.)—nursing—1985–86 Regional Health Authority Districts £ Northern Region 1,121 Districts: Hartlepool — North Tees — South Tees — East Cumbria — South Cumbria — West Cumbria — Darlington — Durham — North West Durham — South West Durham — Northumberland — Gateshead — Newcastle upon Tyne — North Tyneside 2,562 South Tyneside 6,514 Sunderland — Region total 10,197 Yorkshire Region 4,717 Districts: Hull 16,458 East Yorkshire — Grimsby — Scunthorpe — Northallerton — York — Scarborough 140,667 Harrogate 28,023 Bradford 70,618 Airedale — Calderdale — Huddersfield — Dewesbury — Leeds Western 49,763 Leeds Eastern 144,455 Wakefield — Pontefract — Region total 454,701 Trent Region Districts: North Derbyshire — South Derbyshire — Leicestershire 9,951 North Lincolnshire 1,317 South Lincolnshire 11,148 Bassetlaw — Central Nottinghamshire — Nottingham — Barnsley — Doncaster 33,512 Rotherham — Sheffield 610 Region Total 56,538 East Anglian Region Districts: Cambridge 470,974 Peterborough 152,248 West Suffolk 16,078 East Suffolk 23,068 Norwich 325,635 Great Yarmouth 301,864 West Norfolk and Wisbech 205,339 Huntingdon 57,941 Region Total 1,553,147 575W
Regional Health Authority Districts £ North West Thames Region 1,084 Districts: North Bedfordshire 2,633 South Bedfordshire — North Hertfordshire 150,320 East Hertfordshire 87,656 North West Hertfordshire 170,076 South West Hertfordshire 464,893 Barnet 1,072,112 Harrow 1,097,578 Hillingdon 1,150,361 Hounslow and Spelthorne 1,564,033 Ealing 305,119 Brent 973,835 Paddington 1,809,962 Riverside 3,051,438 Region Total 11,901,100 North East Thames Region Districts: Basildon and Thurrock 321,120 Mid Essex 276,866 North East Essex 108,796 West Essex 361,006 Southend 227,731 Barking, Havering and Brentwood 165,713 Hampstead 1,177,457 Bloomsbury 2,844,825 Islington 503,909 City and Hackney 1,428,515 Newham 1,079,930 Tower Hamlets 755,241 Enfield 517,293 Haringey 1,016,597 Redbridge 751,618 Waltham Forest 1,268,057 Region Total 12,804,758 South East Thames Region 21,289 Districts: Brighton 749,199 Eastbourne 281,942 Hastings 19,059 South East Kent 145,601 Canterbury and Thanet 361,265 Dartford and Gravesham 391,726 Maidstone 549,671 Medway 122,321 Tunbridge Wells 485,070 Bexley 175,445 Greenwich 509,913 Bromley 729,054 West Lambeth 1,486,611 Camberwell 1,983,298 Lewisham & North Southwark 1,924,776 Region Total 9,936,240 South West Thames Region 3,661 Districts: North West Surrey 525,323 West Surrey & North East Hampshire 228,546 South West Surrey 528,757 Mid Surrey 150,908 East Surrey 602,960 Chichester 19,030 Mid Downs 95,692 Worthing 312,813 Croydon 131,612 Kingston & Esher 520,643 Richmond, Twickenham & Roehampton 714,459 Wandsworth 1,684,512 Merton & Sutton 544,431 Region Total 6,063,347 576W
Regional Health Authority Districts £ Wessex Region Districts: East Dorset 289,250 West Dorset 49,453 Portsmouth & South East Hampshire 19,727 Southampton & South West Hampshire 50,328 Winchester 133,636 Basingstoke & North Hampshire 183,629 Salisbury 87,272 Swindon 228,353 Bath — Isle of Wight — Region Total 1,041,648 Oxford Region 12,051 Districts: East Berkshire 252,464 West Berkshire 262,202 Aylesbury 110,620 Wycombe 6,622 Milton Keynes 88,520 Kettering 891 Northampton — Oxford — Region Total 733,370 South Western Region Districts: Bristol and Weston 28,481 Frenchay 3,210 Southmead 4,156 Cornwall 1,767 Exeter 282,652 North Devon 3,989 Plymouth 1,641 Torbay 8,051 Cheltenham 32,584 Gloucester — Somerset 5,923 Region Total 372,454 West Midlands Region Districts: Bromsgrove and Redditch 80,499 Hereford 3,839 Kidderminster 12,084 Worcester 100,182 Shropshire 1,519 Mid Staffordshire 5,639 North Staffordshire — South East Staffordshire — Rugby 36,473 North Warwickshire 90,053 South Warwickshire 2,520 Central Birmingham 246,386 East Birmingham 273,551 North Birmingham 25,234 South Birmingham 116,774 West Birmingham 169,813 Coventry 12,651 Dudley 245,348 Sandwell 156,407 Solihull — Walsall — Wolverhampton — Region Total 1,578,972 Mersey Region 8,235 Districts: Chester — Crewe 4,257 Halton 38,345
Regional Health Authority Districts £ Macclesfield 6,540 Warrington — Liverpool 426,854 St. Helens and Knowsley — Southport and Formby 2,862 South Sefton — Wirral — Region Total 487,093 North Western Region Districts: Lancashire — Blackpool, Wyre and Fylde 1,738 Preston — Blackburn, Hyndburn and Ribble Valley — Burnley, Pendle and Rossendale — West Lancashire 2,024 Chorley and South Ribble — Bolton — Bury — North Manchester — Central Manchester 18,425 South Manchester — Oldham — Rochdale — Salford 1,999 Stockport — Tameside and Glossop 210 Trafford — Wigan — Region Total 24,396 Special Health Authorities for the London postgraduate teaching hospitals Hospitals for Sick Children 1,040,037 National Hospital for Nervous Diseases 902,055 Moorfields Eye Hospital 323,507 Bethlem Royal and Maudsley Hospitals 38,317 National Heart and Chest Hospitals 501,495 Royal Marsden Hospital 237,943 Hammersmith and Queen Charlotte's Hospitals 1,216,316 Eastman Dental Hospitals 19,599 Total 4,279,269 Total (England) 51,297,230 The totals for Inner London and Greater London were £24,009,743 and £37,216,616 respectively. Both figures include expenditure by the special health authorities (ie £4,279,269).