§ Mr. Ralph Howellasked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many (a) nurses and (b) doctors are undergoing training at present; and what is the Government's policy on further recruitment of nurses and doctors into the National Health Service.
§ Mr. Kenneth ClarkeAs at 30 September 1982 there were 23,622 qualified doctors in NHS training grades in England, including locums and university staff with honorary NHS contracts; and in the academic year 1981–82 there were a further 17,129 students of pre-clinical and clinical medicine at medical schools in England.
The figures supplied by the General Nursing Council for England and Wales show that the average number of nurse learners in training during the year ending 31 March 1983 was 78,590. This number relates to students and pupils at various stages of training and not solely to those who commenced training during the year.
Health authorities are responsible for recruiting staff. Decisions on the appropriate levels of staffing must be based on local needs and priorities and the resources which can be devoted to those needs. However, since 1982 we have required RHA's to submit for ministerial agreement targets for all major staff groups at 31 March in the following year, and we are now setting new targets for 31 March 1984.