§ Mr. CarringtonTo ask the Secretary of State for Health if she will give the numbers of doctors and dentists by grade employed in the hospital and community health services in each English region for 1990 and 1991.
§ Mrs. Virginia BottomleyMy Department conducts a census each September of doctors and dentists employed in the hospital and community health service—HCHS—in England. Copies have been placed in the Library. Checks on the data for September 1991 suggested that the national health service had omitted a significant number of doctors and dentists from the census for that year. A recent survey of all 14 regions, designed to produce reliable data on the numbers of HCHS doctors and dentists by grade in each region, confirmed that the NHS had omitted the whole-time equivalent—WTE—of about 2,000 HCHS doctors and dentists from the original September 1991 census. The survey also indicated that the NHS had omitted about 500 WTEs from the September 1990 census. I regret that some of the published figures for 1990 are therefore incorrect.
The Department's best estimates of WTEs by grade for England as a whole and in each region for September 1990 and 1991 are shown in the table. More detailed estimates—for example—by specialty group—will be published in due course.