§ Dr. GodmanTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what was the average number of hours worked each week or month by(a) consultants, (b) junior hospital doctors and (c) nurses in (i) hospitals in Argyll and Clyde health board hospitals and (ii) hospitals throughout Scotland in each of the last five years.
§ Mr. Stewart[holding answer 18 March 1993]: The information requested is not available centrally. Hospital consultants are employed on professional contracts and whole-time and maximum part-time practitioners are expected to devote substantially the whole of their professional time to their duties in the NHS. Junior hospital doctors contract for a standard working week of 40 hours and such further agreed additional duty hours to be spent on-call or on shift work as are required to meet the needs of the service. In the Argyll and Clyde health board area as at 30 September 1992, 23 junior hospital doctors were contracted for duty of more than 83 hours per week and 151 for 83 hours or less. The comparable all-Scotland figures were 452 and 2,955. Nursing staff work a basic 37.5-hour week with little overtime commitment.