HC Deb 15 March 1988 vol 129 cc561-2W
Mr. Walden

To ask the Secretary of State for Social Services how many National Health Service staff fall into each of the following categories:(a) medical, including doctors, dentists, nurses and technicians, (b) non-medical but providers of services, including hospital administrators, clerks, receptionists, cleaners, and (c) other.

Mr. Newton

[holding answer 9 March 1988]: Information in the exact format requested is not readily available. The total number of employed staff in the National Health Service at 30 September 1986 was 801,600. A breakdown of these staff is shown in the table. Ambulance staff have been counted in the "direct care" staff category.

NHS directly employed staff at 30 September 1986: England
Whole time equivalent1
(a) "Direct care staff"2 541,000
(b) Total non-medical "support staff"3 260,600
Source: DHSS Annual censuses of NHS medical and non-medical manpower.
1 Figures are independently rounded to the nearest 100 whole-time equivalents.
2 Includes medical-dental including locums, nursing-midwifery including agency and professional-technical staff and ambulance staff.
3 Includes works, maintenance, administrative-clerical, and ancillary staff.