§ Mr. BlunkettTo ask the Secretary of State for Health how many people were employed in each regional health authority in(a) April 1992 and (b) October 1993 using whole time equivalents.
§ Dr. Mawhinney[holding answer 27 October 1993]: The information available is shown in the table. Separate figures for the numbers of staff employed by each regional health authority have not been routinely collected since September 1990. The figures in the table were collected in a special exercise in July 1992 and show only the numbers of whole-time equivalent staff employed in centrally managed, core functions in RHAs. These figures exclude RHA staff who work in other functions such as supplies, blood transfusion services, ambulance services and those medical consultants and registrars whose contracts are held by RHAs but who are managerially accountable to district health authorities.
Numbers Northern 656 Yorkshire 518 Trent 509 East Anglian 292 North West Thames 361 North East Thames 580 South East Thames 604 South West Thames 611 Wessex 331 Oxford 567 South Western 559 West Midlands 1,168 Mersey 313 North Western 785 Total 7,854 Since this exercise was conducted RHAs have been asked to reduce their core staff numbers to an average of 200 per RHA.