§ Dr. Roger Thomasasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will publish figures for each region showing the existing deficiencies in consultant provision in each of the major specialty subdivisions, further subdivided as to whether the present consultant establishment is full-time or part-time.
§ Dr. VaughanThere are no general criteria for judging shortages in the number of consultants in different specialties. Crude ratios of consultants in post and consultant vacancies per 100,000 population, broken down by specialty, for England and Wales as a whole and for each region are, however, given in table R5 of the Regional Tables for Hospital Medical Staff (England and Wales) at 30 September 1979, a copy of which is in the Library. Information on the number of consultants holding full-time, maximum part-time and other part-time contracts broken down by region and specialty would be unreasonably expensive to provide.
228Wof the Ministry of Health, information before 1970 is not now readily available. It is not possible to distinguish between single-handed and other practice vacancies.