§ Ms Julie MorganTo ask the Secretary of State for Wales (1) how many medical and nursing staff have worked in occupational health in the NHS in Wales in each of the last five years for which figures are available; and what were the grades of those employees; [51235]
(2) how many unfilled consultant or approved training posts there are in occupational health in Wales; [51234]
(3) how many whole-time-equivalent NHS consultants there are in post in Wales in occupational health; and how many are (a) full and (b) part-time. [51233]
§ Mr. Win GriffithsInformation on medical staff employed by the NHS in Wales is collected by means of an annual census of staff in post at 30 September. Information on those staff with a specialty of occupational medicine in given in the table.
Medical staff in post at 30 September with a main specialty of occupational health (whole-time equivalent number) 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 Consultant 4.1 4.5 4.5 3.7 3.2 Senior registrar 1.0 — — — — Hospital practitioner 0.2 0.2 — — — Clinical assistant 1.6 1.1 1.3 1.6 1.5 As part of the census information is sought on vacant posts. Data collected from NHS Trusts and Health Authorities for the 1997 census indicated that there were no vacant posts in occupational health at that time.
The 3.2 whole-time equivalent consultant staff in 1997 related to 5 consultants in number, 2 full-time and 3 part-time.
Information on nursing staff is not collected on the basis of individual specialties and, therefore, the number of nurses working in occupational health is not available centrally.