§ Mr. DonohoeTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what steps his Department has taken to encourage the recruitment of more speech therapists by Scottish health boards. [14537]
§ Lord James Douglas-HamiltonMy Department has asked those higher education institutes where speech therapists train to increase their intake of students.
It is worthy of note that the number of whole-time equivalent speech therapists employed in the NHS in Scotland grew from 255.1 to 550.6 between 1979 and 1994, an increase of 116 per cent.
§ Mr. DonohoeTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what representations he has received from Scottish education authorities in relation to the numbers of speech therapists employed within the NHS. [14539]
§ Lord James Douglas-HamiltonNone.
§ Mr. DonohoeTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how many speech therapists have been employed by each health board in Scotland in each of the last five financial years. [14536]
§ Lord James Douglas-HamiltonThe information for 1994 is shown in the table. Date for 1990–93 are published in "Scottish Health Statistics", copies of which are available in the House of Commons Library.
173W
Qualified speech therapists by health board: as at 30 September 1994 (provisional) Scotland Number 659 Whole time equivalent 550.6 Argyll and Clyde 50 39.7 Ayrshire and Arran 34 31.2 Borders 18 13.9 Dumfries and Galloway 24 21.8 Fife 50 44.8 Forth Valley 28 22.6 Grampian 71 59.2 Greater Glasgow 119 99.3 Highland 29 24.7 Lanarkshire 69 58.6 Lothian 99 79.6 Orkney 5 2.7 Shetland 2 2.0 Tayside 55 45.0 Western Isles 6 5.7