§ Mr. McQuarrieasked the Secretary of State for Scotland how many vacancies exist in hospitals and general practice in Scotland for fully qualified medical practitioners; and if he will list these vacancies in the Official Report.
§ Mr. FairgrieveThe only information collected centally on vacant medical posts in Scottish hospitals relates to posts which have been unfilled for six months or more. Table 1 shows the numbers of such posts notified by health boards on a provisional basis for 30 September 1980. These figures do not represent the total number of employment opportunities for doctors in the hospital service, since much larger numbers of posts are vacant for shorter periods.
Table 2 shows the number of vacancies in general medical practice which the Scottish Medical Practices Committee has recognised as requiring to be filled and which remained vacant on 3 February 1981. The figures do not reflect the total number of employment opportunities available in general practice, since it is open to a doctor to apply to set up practice anywhere and there are fifteen districts in Scotland designated as under-doctored.
Table 1. Long-term medical vacancies in Scottish Hospitals at 30.9.80 (provisional) Health Boards No. of Vacancies Ayrshire and Arran 5 Borders — Argyll and Clyde 9 Fife 5 Greater Glasgow 14 Highland 3 Lanarkshire 20 Grampian 7 Orkney — Lothian 10 Tayside 1 Forth Valley 3 Western Isles — Dumfries and — Galloway 2 Shetland — Scotland 79
Table 2. Vacancies in general medical practice in Scotland on 3.2.81 Health Board No. of Vacancies Argyll and Clyde 2 Greater Glasgow 8 Grampian 1 Lanarkshire 6 Tayside 1 Lothian 1 Scotland 19
§ Mr. McQuarrieasked the Secretary of State for Scotland how many qualified medical practitioners are registered as unemployed in Scotland.
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§ Mr. Alexander FletcherOn 11 December 1980 the latest date for which information is available, 42 people were registered in Scotland for employment as medical practioners.