HC Deb 25 April 1989 vol 151 cc794-5
8. Mr. Bellingham

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what progress is being made with the plans to create 100 new posts for consultants.

Mr. Mellor

On 13 April we wrote to all regional health authorities setting out the criteria and inviting them to "bid" for those posts. The posts will be targeted on the six specialties that account for 80 per cent. of patients who have waited more than one year for treatment, but bids can be made for any specialty. We expect to inform regions by October which of their bids have been successful. The first new consultants under the scheme could be in post by the end of the year.

Mr. Bellingham

I am grateful to the Minister for that helpful reply, which will be particularly welcomed by junior doctors. However, when it comes to considering the bids from the regions, may I ask him to look very carefully at west Norfolk, where expenditure on the Health Service has risen very sharply in real terms, but where the growth of population is among the fastest in the country?

Mr. Mellor

My hon. Friend makes two good points. I certainly agree with what he says about his region. It is important to bear in mind not only the 100 new consultants proposed in the White Paper, but the massive expansion in the number of consultants proposed under "Achieving a Balance". The number of consultants in this country, which was 14,500 in 1987, will increase to 19,500 by 1998. That will increase the ability of junior hospital doctors to become consultants—which, of course, is a legitimate ambition of all of them—and will mean that consultants can play a fuller part in covering some of those duties which at present lead to junior hospital doctors being on call for unacceptable periods.

Mr. Janner

Will the Minister's proposals have any impact whatever on the vast number of people waiting for consultant or other services in physiotherapy? Will they help the children in special schools—such as the Emily Forty school, the Greenacres school, the Long Close school and the Western Park school in my constituency —who cannot walk, and many of whom can scarcely move? There are not enough consultants, doctors or physiotherapists to look after them.

Mr. Mellor

I have already pointed out to the hon. and learned Gentleman, but I think it is worth repeating, that the number of consultants in the country is scheduled to go up by 5,000, or over 30 per cent., over the period. There has never been so much expansion, and, of course, it will take place across the board. [HON. MEMBERS: "Answer the question."] I have answered the hon. and learned Gentleman's question.