§ Mrs. Renée Shortasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will list in the Official Report the salary grades of operating department assistants employed in the National Health Service; and if he will also list the comparable nursing grades salaries with which operating department assistants are interchangeable according to the Lewin report.
§ Mr. Newton"The Organisation and Staffing of Operating Departments", a report of a joint sub-committee of the standing medical advisory committee and the standing nursing advisory committee (the Lewin report) proposed the introduction of a new class of operating department staff, known as operating department assistants (ODAs) whose duties, as far as practicable, would be interchangeable with those of trained theatre nurses.
Current basic salary scales of the groups employed in operating departments are as follows:
Trainee ODA Senior ODA Enrolled Nurse Staff Nurse RGN Nursing Sister 11 £ £ £ £ £ £ 3,668 4,632 5,778 5,700 6,475 8,070 3,877 4,831 5,987 5,920 6,730 8,525 4,086 5,031 6,196 6,140 6,985 8,980 — 5,230 6,405 6,360 7,240 9,435 — 5,430 6,612 6,580 7,495 9,890 — — — 6,800 7,750 10,345 — — — 7,020 — 10,800