§ Mr. HinchliffeTo ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list for each years since 1979 the number of community nursing staff employed and the number of visits undertaken to patients over retirement age.
§ Mrs. Virginia Bottomley[holding answer 6 February 1992]: The information is not available in the form requested. Also, definitional changes between 1979 and 1990 and differences in definition between manpower and activity statistics make detailed comparisons difficult.
Table 1 shows the number of community health care nursing staff between 1979 and 1990. Included in the figures are all primary health care staff, except school nurses, agency staff and midwifery staff: community psychiatric nurses and community mental handicap nurses are included from 1981, the first year for which data were available.
Table 2 shows the number of people aged 65 and over who were seen by a home nurse or health visitor between 1979 and 1987–88, and by a district nurse, health visitor, community psychiatric nurse, community mental handicap nurse or other community nurse in 1988–89 and 1989–90, following the introduction of a new data collection system. Figures are not collected centrally on the total number of contacts with community nurses by age.
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Table 1 Primary Health Care (Community) Nursing1 Staff at 30 September Each Year England Year Whole-time equivalent2 31979 29,500 31980 32,100 1981 35,700 1982 35,600 1983 36,300 1984 37,000 1985 39,000 1986 38,800 1987 39,000 1988 39,700 41989 39,300 1990 40,700
Source: Department of Health (SMI3) annual census of NHS non-medical manpower. Notes: 1 Excludes school nursing, midwifery and agency staff, but includes community psychiatric and community mental handicap nursing staff. 2 All figures are independently rounded to the nearest one hundred (100) whole-time equivalents. 3 Not adjusted for reduction in nurses working hours during 1980–81 (from 40 to 37.5 hours per week). 4 Understated figure due to errors in occupation coding at South East Thames Region.
Table 2 First contacts Home/Community nursing (thousands) England Year First contacts with 65s and over 1979 1,819.9 1980 1,898.7 1981 1,903.0 1982 1,955.9 1983 2,005.9 1984 2,039.8 1985 2,077.4 1986 2,018.3 1987–88 2,030.5 1988–891 2 2,144.0 1989–90 1,955.0 Sources: LHS 27/3, KC56–59 1 For 1988–89 and 1989–90, there was a change in the method of data collection, and therefore the figures are not comparable to past years. 2 This estimate was based on incomplete age data for the first year of a new data collection system and appears to over estimate the true figure.