§ Mr. Maxtonasked the Secretary of State for Scotland when the report on the National Health Service staffing review of Scotland will be available.
§ Mr. John MacKayThe review, which is being undertaken with the full co-operation of the Scottish joint consultants committee, relates to medical staffing and is taking place on a specialty by specialty basis. A report is not expected before the summer of 1987.
§ Mr. Maxtonasked the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will make a statement on the proposal to strengthen central manpower control in the National Health Service by making use of the regulatory mechanism already in existence by the Advisory Committee on Medical Establishment and to give additional powers to the Advisory Committee on Medical Establishment to redistribute hospital doctors to protect patient services.
§ Mr. John MacKayThe remit of the Advisory Committee on Medical Establishments has, with the agreement of the profession, been extended to include(a) a requirement to approve paragraph 94 (clinical assistant) 647W appointments where the post involves six or more sessions per week and (b) the authority to transfer junior posts from the better endowed centres when it considers a request for an additional post in another centre is justified.
No further proposals to extend the remit of the advisory committee have been put to the Scottish Home and Health Department.