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Written question asked by Tim Loughton (Conservative) on Monday, 15 March 2021, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 18 March 2021 (named day). A holding answer was provided on Thursday, 18 March 2021. A substantive answer was provided by Helen Whately (Conservative) on Tuesday, 23 March 2021 on behalf of the Department of Health and Social Care.


NHS: Nurses

Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the number of nurses working in the NHS in (a) August 2019 and (b) March 2021 (i) as full time equivalents and (ii) in total.

Answer

NHS Digital publishes Hospital and Community Health Services (HCHS) workforce statistics. These include staff working in hospital trusts and clinical commissioning groups, excluding staff working in primary care, local authorities or other providers.

As at August 2019 there were 287,458 full time equivalent (FTE) nurse and health visitors working in the HCHS workforce, 322,810 headcount.

Data for March 2021 is not yet available. In November 2020, the latest period for which data for FTE and headcount is available, there were 307,227 FTE nurse and health visitors working in the National Health Service, or 343,240 headcount.


Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
168816
Session
2019-21
Subjects
NHS Nurses
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
View this Written question on www.parliament.uk