§ 26. Mr. Simon HughesTo ask the Secretary of State for Wales how many vacancies for(a) nurses, (b) doctors and (c) midwives there are in the NHS in Wales. [66295]
§ Mr. MichaelAlthough this information is not collected centrally we do have some information regarding nurses and midwives but not doctors. The workforce plans produced by NHS Trusts identified at 30 September 1997, 442 vacancies for registered nurses in Wales out of 11,243 staff in post; 30 vacancies for community nurses out of a total 2,634 staff in post; and 24 vacancies for widwives out of 1,284 staff in post. The 1998 data will be available in May 1999. A nurse executive survey undertaken in June 1998, suggested that nursing vacancies had risen to 597.
In future this will become the responsibility of the National Assembly.