§ Mr. MilburnTo ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to her answer of 28 April,Official Report, column 307, how many hospital consultant posts have been vacant, by specialty, in each of the last five years for which figures are available.
§ Dr. MawhinneyThe information is shown in the table.
This indicates trends in consultant vacancies notified to the Department as at 30 September of each year. As a snapshot of vacancies on a single date they may not fairly reflect the trend for the number of vacancies over the year as a whole.