Skip to main content

Nurses: Manpower

Volume 503: debated on Wednesday 13 January 2010

To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many nurses were employed in the NHS in (a) 1997 and (b) 2009. (310464)

The total number of nurses employed in the national health service in 1997 and 2008 are set out as follows

Headcount

Full-time equivalent (FTE)

1997

300,467

246,011

2008

386,112

315,410

The number of nurses employed in the NHS in 2009 will be released in March 2010 upon publication of the NHS Workforce Census.

The total number of all qualified nurses (including practice nurses), midwives and health visitors has increased by 81,000 (25 per cent.) since 1997.