§ Mr. Ralph HowellTo ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) if he will state the National Health staff-to-bed ratio for 1985 and 1988 and projected figures for 1989 and 1992 and the percentage change for each of those years relative to the previous year;
(2) if he will state the ratio of National Health Service beds to staff, and the average number of beds unoccupied in the National Health Service daily for 1960, 1970, 1979, 1984 and 1988, respectively.
§ Mrs. CurrieSuch information as we have for England is shown in the tables.
My hon. Friend should be wary of making simple ratios from these figures. Staff within the NHS cover a wide range of Health Service activity inside and outside hospital, some of which is not related to bed use. "Staff in post" figures are taken from a census on 30 September annually, whereas numbers of beds are based on a daily count averaged over a full calendar year.
We have given figures for 1986, the latest year for which figures for both staff in post and numbers of beds are available. Between 1984 and 1985 staff in post fell by 0.8 per cent. and by 1.4 per cent. between 1985 and 1986. Numbers of occupied beds fell by 2 per cent. and 3.5 per cent. respectively in those years. We have no appropriate projections for 1989–1992 as we do not use "staff per bed" for planning purposes.
Table 1 Average Daily Occupied Beds and Unoccupied Beds in the NHS hospitals, England
Average daily number of occupied beds2 Average daily number of unoccupied beds2 1960 388,007 60,336 19701 351,251 72,370 1979 293,324 68,398 1984 269,324 65,189 1985 263,960 61,527 1986 254,597 61,117 Notes:
1 The count of occupied beds excluded beds reserved for psychiatric patients on short leave.
2 Bed occupancy figures are based on a midnight count and do not reflect the use of beds by patients who do not stay overnight.
Table 2 NHS Directly Employed Staff at 30 September: England Year Whole-Time Equivalents1 1960 2— 1970 2— 1979 775,300 1984 819,300 1985 812,9003 1986 801,6003 Notes
1 Figures have been rounded to the nearest hundred.
2 Staffing figures for 1960 and 1970 are not available on a basis comparable with later years.
3 Part of the reduction in staff is attributable to the effects of competitive tendering in the ancilliary staff group.