§ Mr. HurstTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what proposals he has for increasing the number of doctors employed by the national health service; and if he will make a statement. [84658]
§ Mr. HuttonThe NHS Plan makes a commitment to substantially increase the national health service work force by March 2004. The numbers of consultants are expected to increase by 7,500, specialist registrar numbers by 1,000, general practitioner (GP) numbers by 2,000 and GP registrar numbers by 550 over a 1999 baseline.
The latest forecasts for growth, set out in "Delivering the NHS Plan", expect the NHS to have net increases by 2008, over a 2001 baseline, of at least 15,000 doctors, both consultants and GPs.
Between September 1997 and September 2001, the number of total NHS doctors increased by 11 per cent. and specialist registrar (SpR) numbers specifically also increased by 11 per cent. Between September 1997 and March 2002, the number of consultants and GPs increased by 23 per cent. and 3 per cent. respectively and GP registrar numbers by 42 per cent.
In respect of consultants, we are not solely relying on the output from training to deliver a sufficient supply of applicants for consultant posts. We are implementing a range of measures to:
Improve retention—through a flexible careers scheme and flexible retirement;Identify and encourage suitable doctors on the specialist register to compete for posts;Target action to reduce delay to certificate of completion of specialists training completion and encourage recent qualifiers to take up consultant posts;Establish more part-time and job-share posts;Increase international recruitment, including government to government agreements, a global recruitment campaign and the international fellowship programme.391W With regard to SpR numbers, we have adopted a new approach to maximising the numbers of SpRs trained within existing resources. The current training system has been freed up by taking a service-led approach, which will meet educational needs. We expect this to result in substantial increases in SpR numbers beyond the 1,000 assumed in the NHS Plan.We have also introduced a GP vocational training scheme for senior house officers in 2002, which has resulted in 84 appointments.
To meet the GP targets, the Department has implemented a number of recruitment and retention initiatives, which include:
- golden hellos to new and returning GPs
- delayed retirement payments
- flexible career scheme
- extension of the improving working lives initiative to primary care
- international recruitment.