§ Dr. Roger Thomasasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what is the ratio of junior hospital staff up to and including senior registrars to consultant staff, excluding associate specialists, in each of the recognised specialties in each of the English health regions in the year for which the latest figures are available.
§ Mr. Newton[pursuant to his reply, 4 December 1986; c. 736]: I regret that information in the precise form requested could be provided only at disproportinate cost. Information on the ratio of junior hospital staff to consultants for each specialty for England as a whole, and for each region for medical and dental specialties as a whole, is set out in the tables. Information on the number of staff in each grade by region and specialty, from which ratios for particular combinations of region and specialty could be calculated, is set out in the publications "Hospital Medical Staff—England and Wales" and "Hospital Dental Staff—England and Wales", copies of which are in the Library. This information must be interpreted with caution. The desirable ratio will widely vary between specialties and will depend on such factors as the expected rate of consultant expansion, the age distribution of the consultant stock, the length of time required for specialist training, and the extent to which the specialty contributes to general training for other hospital disciplines or for general practice. Some variation between regions may also be expected, for instance because of historical differences in the distribution of medical schools.
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Table 1 Hospital medical and dental staff in post at 30 September 1985
England: Analysis by specialty showing ratio of junior hospital staff
1to consultants2
Specialty Junior doctor Consultants ratio3 All specialties Total 1.67 All medical specialties 1.68 General medicine 3.11 Cardiology 1.86 Endocrinology 1.52 Gastroenterology 1.08 Nephrology 1.75 Thoracic Medicine 1.56 Geriatric Medicine 2.39 Audiological Medicine 0.72 Clinical genetics 0.17 Clinical neurological physiology 0.22 Clinical pharmacology and therapeutics 0.76 Clinical physiology 0.31 Dermatology 0.66 Genito-urinary medicine 0.80 Medical oncology 2.62 Infectious diseases 2.32 Neurology 1.17 Occupational health 0.03 Rheumatology 0.84 Other 2.28 Paediatrics 2.51
Specialty Junior doctor Consultants ratio3 Paediatric neurology 0.24 Accident and emergency 8.18 General surgery 2.90 Cardio-thoracic surgery 1.92 Otolaryngology 1.47 Neurosurgery 1.72 Ophthalmology 1.35 Paediatric surgery 2.06 Plastic surgery 1.39 Traumatic and Orthopaedic surgery 1.91 Urology 1.27 Obstetrics and gynaecology 2.61 Anaesthetics 1.13 Radiology 0.51 Nuclear medicine 0.34 Radiotherapy 1.21 Blood transfusion 0.18 Chemical pathology 0.74 Haematology 0.71 Histopathology 0.50 Immuno-pathology 0.30 Medical microbiology 0.63 Neuropathology 0.61 Mental Illness 1.68 Child adolescent psychiatry 0.41 Forensic psychiatry 0.36 Mental Handicap 0.62 Psychotherapy 0.73 All dental specialties 1.37 Oral surgery 1.77 Orthodontics 0.68 Restorative dentistry 1.26 Paediatric dentistry 2.04 1 Senior registrar, registrars, senior house officer as house officer/dental house officer. 2 Including senior hospital medical/dental officers with allowance. 3 Ratio of number of staff expressed in whole-time equivalents.
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Table 2 Hospital medical and dental staff in post at 30 September 1985 in
England: Analysis by region showing ratio of junior hospital
1 staffto consultants
2Junior doctor/consultants ratio3 ENGLAND4 1.67 Northern 1.58 Yorkshire 1.63 Trent 1.94 East Anglian 1.46 N W Thames 1.92 N E Thames 1.64 S E Thames 1.79 S W Thames 1.57 Wessex 1.28 Oxford 1.64 South Western 1.54 West Midlands 1.62 Mersey 1.88 North Western 1.73 SHAs/for the London postgraduate Teaching Hospitals 1.46 1 Senior registrar, registrar, senior house officer and house officer/dental house officer. 2 Including senior hospital medical/dental officers with allowance.
3 Ratio of number of doctors expressed as whole-time equivalents.
4 Including the Special Health Authorities for the London post-graduate Teaching Hospitals.