§ Mr. LordTo ask the Secretary of State for Health when he will announce the allocation of the remaining new consultant posts referred to in the White Paper "Working for Patients".
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§ Mrs. Virginia BottomleyI have today approved 65 posts for the remaining two years of this scheme, 35 for 1990–91 and 30 for 1991–92. This follows my announcement on 31 October last year of the first 35 posts far 1989–90.
As I said at that time, these new posts will help reduce waiting times in districts and specialties with particularly long waiting lists. They will also help reduce the working hours of junior doctors, and improve the career structure in the respective specialties.
As with the initial allocation, these posts were to be fully funded up to a maximum of £500,000 per year per post. This includes the cost of support staff, running costs and equipment. The average annual cost of these posts will be around £380,000, plus an average additional one-off starting cost of around £30,000.
The new posts are to be in: general surgery (12 posts); trauma and orthopaedic surgery (14); ear, nose and throat surgery (six); obstetrics and gynaecology (seven); opthalmology (nine); urology (eight); plastic surgery (five); and one post each in neurosurgery, accident and emergency, audiological medicine and paediatric surgery. They will be supported by appropriate numbers of medical, nursing, professional, technical and administrative staff.
Once all 100 new consultants are in post, the total annual cost of the scheme will be around £37 million. We expect the scheme to have a significant impact on some of the longest waiting times, and it will also provide a healthy boost to the expansion of the consultant grade.