§ Mrs. Renée Shortasked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many consultant posts and in which specialties were unfilled at the latest convenient date in each area of the United Kingdom; and how this compares with the vacancies for the same time in 1979.
§ Dr. VaughanThe latest information available centrally on vacant consultant relates to 30 September 1979 when there were 907 consultants posts without a permanent holder in medical specialties in the NHS in England and Wales (distribution of544W these posts between specialties is set out in table 17 of the national tables, hospital medical staff for England and Wales, copies of which are available in the Library of the House); the comparable figure for Northern Ireland was 77 and at the same date in Scotland there were 42 posts which had been unoccupied by a permanent holder for at least six months.
At 30 June 1980 the number of consultants in medical specialties in post in the NHS in England and Wales had risen by 182 compared with 30 September 1979.