§ Lord James Douglas-Hamiltonasked the Secretary of State for Social Services in the light of the views of the Doctors and Dentists Review Body in its report of April 1976 on the subject of emigration by fully trained senior registrars and consultants, particularly in highly specialised and undermanned specialities such as radiotherapy, neuroradiology and paediatric radiology, what steps he will take to obtain accurate statistics on the subject.
§ Mr. EnnalsEmigration is only one of the factors affecting hospital supply. 81W I attach importance, however, to obtaining up to date information, and a programme currently under way to transfer various records to a computer system will enable more rapid estimates to be made of the number of doctors leaving and entering the country. A substantial number of these doctors are not employed by the NHS before they leave, but following a request made by the Review Body some years ago, senior medical staff leaving the NHS are asked to state the reason. This information cannot be numerically equated with actual migration but provides an indication of underlying trends. Further information about trends is obtained from special surveys carried out from time to time by health authorities and various outside bodies.
To obtain more accurate migration data would make additional demands both on NHS administrative staff and on the doctors who have left. Moreover, detailed information about doctors in post on 30th September is recorded annually, whilst there are also regular discussions with health authorities about any problems that may arise in relation to medical staffing matters.