HC Deb 10 February 1972 vol 830 cc438-9W
Mr. Ifor Davies

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services what is the total number of doctors who have left the United Kingdom for posts overseas in the past five years.

Sir K. Joseph

Information is not available in the form requested: the latest estimates of fully or provisionally registered civilian doctors of British or Irish birth leaving Great Britain, for the last five years for which figures are available, are as follows:

1964–65 1,050
1965–66 940
1966–67 1,020
1967–68 1,050
1968–69 780

Many doctors return after relatively short periods overseas; the estimated net losses, varying between 500 and 250 a year, were stated in my hon. Friend's reply to my hon. Friend the Member for Arundel and Shoreham (Mr. Luce) on 15th December, 1971. Both the gross and net figures may need to be revised as more information becomes available about the whereabouts of individual doctors.—[Vol. 828, c. 145.]