§ Mr. BaronTo ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to his answer of 8 January 2004,Official Report, column 467W, how many public health nurses there were in the NHS in each of the last 10 years. [148910]
§ Mr. Hutton[holding answer 19 January 2004]Workforce information currently collected by the Department does not identify either school nurses or communicable disease control nurses, two of the main groups of public health nurses. Health visitors are the only public health nurses separately identified in the non-medical workforce census. The following table shows the number of health visitors employed in the national health service since 1992.
191W
NHS hospital and community health services: Qualified health visitors in England as at 30 September each specified year Headcount 1992 12,038 1993 12,059 1994 11,548 1995 12,079 1996 12,350 1997 12,410 1998 12,572 1999 12,800
NHS hospital and community health services: Qualified health visitors in England as at 30 September each specified year Headcount 2000 12,827 2001 13,053 2002 12,774 Notes:
1. A new classification of the non-medical workforce was introduced in 1995.
2. Information based on this classification is not directly comparable with earlier years.
Source:
Department of Health Non-medical Workforce Census