§ Mr. Ralph HowellTo ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) if he will make a statement on the reasons for the decision to cease compiling central figures on the average number of NHS occupied hospital beds;
(2) if he will resume the compilation of central statistics on the occupancy of NHS hospital beds.
§ Mr. DorrellThe health services information steering group (chaired by Mrs.. Korner) recommended that the central collection of aggregated bed occupancy figures should cease as it is not a meaningful indicator of efficient bed use. The measure derived from this information took no account of beds occupied by day case patients nor the fact that some wards are designed for short stay acute cases and others for very long stay geriatric and psychiatric cases. More relevant indicators such as throughput and length of stay are calculated from individual patient episode information and included in Health Service Indicators published by the Department. The latter also includes information about unoccupied beds in the mental illness and mental handicap specialties.