Annual Report of the Ministry of Health.
—The report of the Ministry of Health for the period, April 1, 1950, to Dec. 31, 1951, has been published. The gross cost of the National Health Service in 1950-1951 was £398,279,153, compared with £387,587,243 in 1949-1950 and £241,439,787 in the first nine months of the service (July, 1948, to March, 1949). The estimated gross expenditure for 1951-1952 is £417,384,700. The number of available hospital beds rose from 448,057 in 1949 to 461,892 in 1951. The number of inpatients in these two years was 2,936,980 and 3,259,214, and the number of new outpatients was 6,147,825 and 6,298,746. Full-time nursing and midwifery staffs increased from 125,752 in 1949 to 136,210 in 1951; the comparable numbers for part-time staffs were 23,060 and 25,756. Full-time consultants rose in number from 1,310 in 1949 to 1,605 in 1951, the comparable numbers for their part-time colleagues being 23,060