§ Mr. WigleyTo ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will publish a table for each of the district health authorities in England showing the cost of administrative and clerical staff as a proportion of net revenue expenditure, respectively, for 1988–89; and if he will make a statement.
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§ Mr. Dorrell[holding answer 8 June 1990]: Information derived from the 1988–89 annual accounts of district health authorities in England has been placed in the Library.
The administrative and clerical staff group within the national health service covers a diversity of grades including catering, laundry and other managers and certain ambulance officers as well as administrative, clerical and secretarial staff as such. A number of hospital staff are employed at local levels on clerical and secretarial grades but in fact provide essential support in various departments and without them patient treatment cannot effectively take place. Some such staff work in direct support of clinicians and as ward clerks, releasing qualified staff to carry out tasks for which they are trained.