§ Mr. Roseasked the Secretary of State for Social Services (1) what is the national shortage of hospital casualty officers;
(2) what is the total shortage of casualty officers in Great Britain and the Manchester Area Regional Hospital Board, respectively.
§ Mr. AlisonAvailable national statistics do not identify vacancies in accident and emergency, except for a group of 79 recently established consultant posts. Of these, 31 had not yet been filled by June of this year. In the Manchester regional hospital area, all three consultant 557W posts are filled. The regional hospital board informs me that there are 17 vacancies in an establishment of 79 posts of other grades designated to accident departments. This excludes posts covering casualty work from other specialty firms, for which information is not available.