§ Mrs. Renée Shortasked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many consultant posts are vacant in each region; and what percentage of each region's planned consultant posts these represent.
§ Mr. Kenneth ClarkeThe following table shows, for each region in England at 30 September 1983, the number of consultant posts in medical and dental specialties without a permanent holder; the whole-time equivalent of posts without a permanent holder, and of those posts wholly unoccupied; and the last two items expressed as a percentage of the total whole-time equivalent consultant establishment.
These figures seem to me to lack any special significance. It has always been a feature of medical manning that comparatively large numbers of planned consultant posts are occupied by locums or unoccupied at any one time.
means of correcting the imbalance in the hospital staffing structure, but we cannot commit authorities to any particular rate of expansion.