asked the Minister for Health if he will state to the last convenient date the amount of the Hospitals Fund which has been expended on administration since the inception of the fund.
Written Answers. - Expenditure on Hospital Administration.
So far as it is readily ascertainable the amount expended on administration since the establishment of the Hospitals Trust Fund in 1933 up to 31st October, 1957, was £344,815. That sum covers expenditure on the Hospitals Commission and the Hospitals Trust Board and expenditure on staff in the Department of Health who were employed on work connected with the establishment of the three regional sanatoria. The figure mentioned does not, however, include provision in respect of staff in the Department of Health whose duties are connected with the administration of the Hospitals Trust Fund generally but whose salaries are not a charge on the Hospitals Trust Fund. Neither does the total include administration expenses incurred by voluntary hospitals, an element of which would be recouped in deficit payments made by way of grants from the fund nor administration expenses incurred by such bodies as the Hospitals Library Council, the Medical Research Council and the National Organisation for Rehabilitation as such expenses are not readily ascertainable.