§ Mr. Nicholas Wintertonasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what information he has concerning the number of health authorities which employ staff through employment agencies; how many staff are employed by each authority in this way; and what are the total annual fees paid by each authority to such agencies in each year.
§ Mr. HayhoeI regret that details of the numbers of staff employed through employment agencies are available only in respect of nursing and midwifery staff. The figures are shown in table 1. Table 2 shows the total expenditure on the employment of non-National Health Service staff (mostly agency staff) in the financial years 1983–84 and 1984–85 for each region in England and for the special health authorities of London post-graduate teaching hospitals. It is not possible to distinguish between salary costs and commission fees to employment agencies.
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Table 1 Agency nursing and midwifery staff* as at 30 September Whole-time equivalent Region 1983 1984 Northern † Nil Yorkshire † † Trent Nil Nil East Anglian 40 110 North West Thames 620 850 North East Thames 600 980 South East Thames 480 770 South West Thames 380 480 Wessex 40 60 Oxford † 10 South Western † 10 West Midlands 10 100 Mersey 20 60 North Western Nil Nil SHAs 250 310 England Total 2,440 3,750 Notes: * Figures are whole time equivalent rounded to nearest ten (10) because of rounding the sum of the component parts may not agree with the England total. † Less than five (5).
1983–84 1984–85 Region Nursing staff All other staff Total Nursing staff All other staff Total £'000 £'000 £'000 £'000 £'000 £'000 Trent 11 917 928 10 1,457 1,467 East Anglian 722 859 1,581 1,055 993 2,048 North West Thames 7,345 5,045 12,390 9,377 6,151 15,528 North East Thames 7,453 5,605 13,058 10,601 7,599 18,200 South East Thames 6,480 3,165 9,645 7,918 4,095 12,013 South West Thames 4,470 3,244 7,714 5,224 4,487 9,711 Wessex 462 931 1,393 678 1,332 2,010 Oxford 160 944 1,104 293 1,302 1,595 South Western 158 1,010 1,168 256 1,481 1,737 West Midlands 218 1,816 2,034 797 2,201 2,998 Mersey 126 302 428 448 383 831 North Western 19 1,464 1,483 22 1,686 1,708 Total (Regions) 27,722 27,087 54,809 36,976 35,369 72,345 Special Health Authorities for London Postgraduate hospitals 2,892 2,121 5,013 3,181 3,003 6,184 TOTAL 30,614 29,208 59,822 40,157 38,372 78,529 Note: The figures are derived from the annual accounts of regional and district health authorities together with those of the special health authorities for the London Postgraduate Teaching Hospitals.