§ Mr. FoulkesTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security, if he will list the number of doctors working at each Benefit Agency medical services centre in Scotland who are(a) full time BAMS staff, (b) current medical practitioners, (c) retired medical practitioners and (d) in other categories. [1348]
§ Mr. Burt[pursuant to his reply, 5 November 1996, c. 553]: I am advised that Peter Mathison, the chief executive of the Benefits Agency, will be writing again to clarify his reply.
Letter from Peter Mathison to Mr. George Foulkes, dated 5 February 1997:
I am writing to clarify the information provided to you in my letter of 5 November 1996 in response to your Parliamentary Question. You asked the Secretary of State for Social Security if he 639W would list the number of doctors working at each Benefit Agency Medical Services centre in Scotland who were (a) full time BAMS staff, (b) current medical practitioners, (c) retired medical practitioners and (d) in other categories.
I regret that the figures I quoted for the number of sessional fee paid doctors for Edinburgh and Aberdeen were incorrect. The figures should have been 33 and 13 respectively. The figures are provisional and subject to change.
The additional information concerning fee-paid sessional doctors is now available. Full details are contained in the attached table.
I apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused you.
Doctors working in Scotland at each centre Centre Full time BAMS Sessional (fee-paid) (employed) Current Retired Glasgow/Shettlestone/Cumbernauld 22 62 9 Ayr/Kilmarnock 0 6 2 Greenock 0 4 0 Motherwell/Hamilton 0 5 1 Edinburgh 20 20 13 Aberdeen 2 6 7 Inverness 2 1 4 Dundee 4 6 4 Figures are provisional and subject to change.
Glasgow full time doctors cover a variety of areas.
All full time and fee paid doctors are current medical practitioners.
Retired doctors may have taken early retirement from general practice before the age of 60.