§ 18. Mr. Nigel EvansTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what progress is being made to reduce the hours of duty of junior doctors in the north west region.
§ Dr. MawhinneyProgress in implementing the new deal to reduce junior doctors' hours has been very encouraging in the north-west.
150WIn the North West regional health authority area, posts contracted for more than 83 hours a week were eliminated by September 1993. By that date the number of hard-pressed on-call posts contracted for between 72 and 83 hours a week had fallen by 23 per cent. over the previous year. Our priority this year is to tackle these hard-pressed posts.