Sixth report from the Select Committee on Estimates : together with the minutes of evidence taken before sub-committee D and appendices, session 1956-1957: Running costs of hospitals.

  • Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Select Committee on Estimates
Date:
[1957]
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Sixth report from the Select Committee on Estimates : together with the minutes of evidence taken before sub-committee D and appendices, session 1956-1957: Running costs of hospitals. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    108/448 page 86
    26 February, 1957.] [Continued. Regional Position We have only 65 per cent. acute beds in general medicine and 75 per cent. in general surgery, and of all kinds of beds only 83 per cent. of the average number of acute beds for England and Wales in 1953. It is true that we have 12 per cent. more chronic, convalescent and tuberculosis beds than the average number for other Regions, but the evidence is that we make very good use of these chronic and convalescent beds if we are to judge by turnover. The turnover figures in general medicine in this Region in 1955 were nearly 18, whereas in the country as a whole for 1954 they were just over 14. In general surgery cases the turnover was 29 per bed, whereas that for England and Wales was just over 23:5. In gynaecology 33:6 as opposed to 27°7. In E.N.T. 58 as opposed to 48. In chronic sick institutions 2°4 as opposed to 1:9. The corollary of this is that the duration of stay of patients in hospitals in the Oxford Region is a good deal shorter than the average duration of stay for England and Wales as a whole. For instance, in general medicine our average duration of stay is approximately 17 as opposed to approximately 23 days. In our chronic sick institutions our average duration of stay is some 40 days less per patient than it is for chronic sick patients taking the country as a whole. As the Board will know, taking the position as a whole we are generously supplied with chronic sick beds, particularly in the County of Northampton, though there are shortages in Swindon and High Wycombe. Even though we are more generously supplied with beds our turnover per bed is greater by about 25 per cent. than the average for England and Wales. In quoting all these figures for England and Wales as a whole the Oxford figures are included, so that the position is slightly better than I am making it. Our tuberculosis beds are a good deal less in numbers per thousand of the population than the country as a whole—44 to 70. It must be admitted that we are a relatively rural population and the problem in this Region has been a good deal less than in some of the black spots in the industrial north. In 1950 when I came to this Region one of my first tasks was to organise beds in infectious disease hospitals and arrange for them to receive tuberculosis cases. The tuberculosis problem in this Region now is such that there is relatively little difficulty in securing hospitalisation of patients. On maternity provision we are reasonably well equipped, having the same number of beds as the country as a whole. The percentage occupancy of some of our general practitioner institutions is relatively low, but this appears to be inevitable when the number of beds is small. The average duration of stay in maternity hospitals now is 11 or 12 days—this is rather longer than a little time ago when the birth rate was higher and the pressure on accommodation greater. The picture so far painted is a reasonably cheerful one, but there are some problems before us. The surgical waiting lists in places like Northampton and Reading are relatively high in relation to the resources available. The gynaecological waiting lists are high too in relation to the number of discharges that take place from beds at any given period. We are taking special steps in Northampton to provide additional surgical beds, which it is hoped will make some inroad on the surgical waiting list. The Board will also be considering what it can do for the Reading area. Stoke Mandeville Hospital has proved of enormous benefit in dealing with some of the long surgical waiting lists and has helped out at Oxford, Reading and Northampton. The fall in the waiting list at Northampton from nearly 1,500 to approximately 1,100 is in part due to the ability of the Stoke Mandeville Hospital
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