§ 15. Dr. Roger Thomasasked the Secretary of State for Wales what are the numbers of (a) general surgeons and (b) surgeons in other working specialties in each authority in Wales for every 100,000 population; and how these figures compare with (i) Scotland, (ii) the English regions and (iii) the other countries of the European Community.
§ Mr. Mark RobinsonAs at 30 September 1985, health authorities in Wales employed the equivalent of 2.1 whole-time consultant general surgeons and 6.3 whole-time consultants in other surgical specialties per 100,000 of the population. As the comparisons requested are detailed, with permission, Mr. Speaker, I will circulate a table of figures in the Official Report.
§ Dr. ThomasWill the Minister consider promoting experienced neo-surgical registrars to reduce these waiting lists?
§ Mr. RobinsonThat is a factor that we can take into consideration in looking at this initiative.
Such information as is available for Wales, Scotland and England relates to 30 September 1985 and is given in the following tables. Comparable information for other countries of the European Community is not available.
§ Following are the figures:
| (a) Consultant whole-time equivalents per 100,000 population at 30 September 1985: health authorities in Wales | ||
| General surgeons | Other surgical specialties | |
| Clwyd | 1.7 | 5.4 |
| East Dyfed | 2.8 | 6.2 |
| Pembrokeshire | 3.7 | 5.3 |
| Gwent | 2.0 | 6.0 |
| Gwynedd | 2.6 | 5.2 |
| Mid Glamorgan | 1.7 | 4.9 |
| Powys | 0.5 | 2.3 |
| South Glamorgan | 2.3 | 10.2 |
| West Glamorgan | 2.0 | 7.6 |
| Wales | 2.1 | 6.3 |
| (b) Consultant whole-time equivalents per 100,000 population at 30 September 1985: Scotland, England, English Regions | ||
| General surgeons | Other surgical specialties | |
| Scotland* | 2.8 | 9.3 |
| England | 1.8 | 6.5 |
| English Regions: | ||
| Northern | 2.1 | 7.3 |
| Yorkshire | 1.7 | 6.4 |
| Trent | 1.5 | 5.7 |
| East Anglia | 1.5 | 7.2 |
| North-West Thames | 1.9 | 5.6 |
| North-East Thames | 2.0 | 7.6 |
| South-East Thames | 2.0 | 6.9 |
| South-West Thames | 1.6 | 5.7 |
| Wessex | 1.4 | 6.0 |
| Oxford | 1.8 | 5.9 |
| South-Western | 1.7 | 6.4 |
| West Midlands | 1.9 | 6.6 |
| Mersey | 1.9 | 6.2 |
| North-Western | 2.0 | 7.1 |
| * Figures for Scotland are provisional. |
§ In the above tables, "other surgical specialties" includes: Ear, nose and throat; traumatic and orthopaedic surgery; ophthalmology; radiotherapy; urology; plastic surgery; cardio-thoracic surgery; dental surgery; othodontics; neurosurgery; obstetrics and gynaecology; paediatric surgery.