HC Deb 23 March 2000 vol 346 cc632-3W
Mr. Stevenson

To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list for each year since 1994 the number of(a) nurses, (b) doctors, (c) consultants, (d) midwives and (e) health visitors employed by the North Staffordshire Hospital Trust; and if he will make a statement. [115627]

Mr. Denham

The table illustrates that the number of nursing and midwifery staff employed by the North Staffordshire Hospital National Health Service Trust declined between the years 1994 and 1997. However, nursing staff numbers have increased in 1998 and the numbers of hospital medical doctors employed within the Trust steadily increased since 1994, demonstrating our commitment to increase the number of doctors and nurses working within the NHS. It should be noted that inflated figures for nursing staff in 1994 are not comparable with later years, due to a new classification system introduced in 1995.

and (c)(a) and (b) as a percentage of the total number of residential properties owned by health authorities and NHS trusts; [115613]

(2) if empty residential properties owned by the NHS trusts and health authorities are counted by (a) number of vacant buildings and (b) the number of unoccupied bed spaces when notified to the Department for the Environment, Transport and the Regions for inclusion in the published figures for empty properties in England. [115619]

Mr. Denham

Information as of 1 April 1999 is not available centrally since the last survey was carried out as at September 1998. This showed that out of a total of 2,336 houses, and 5,388 flats owned by National Health Service trusts, 290 houses and 605 flats were vacant. This represented an average of 11.6 per cent. vacant of the total (approximately 2 each per NHS trust).

Information is not available on the number of properties empty for one year or more.

The regional totals are as follows:

Houses Flats Total vacant
Anglia and Oxford 282 541 128
Northern and Yorkshire 301 744 108
South and West 239 677 98
North Thames 332 712 135
North West 272 868 97
South Thames 340 526 74
West Midlands 183 889 87
Trent 331 643 170

Note:

Regional boundaries changed in April 1999

The survey of the NHS residential estate, carried out last in September 1998, counted the number of houses and flats, not the number of bed spaces in those properties.