§ Mrs. BeckettTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what was the number of consultants in whole-time equivalents in each of the last five years. [30425]
§ Mr. MaloneThe information is shown in the table.
Hospital medical consultants: Whole-time equivalents England at 30 September each year Year Consultants 1989 13,670 1990 14,190 1991 14,500 1992 14,850 1993 15,210 Note: All figures rounded to the nearest 10.
345W
§ Mrs. BeckettTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what was the average number of hours worked by consultants in any available year in each of the last 10 years. [30427]
§ Mr. MaloneThis information is not routinely collected by the Department. However, data are available from surveys carried out by the Office of Manpower Economics in 1989—the results were published in the 20th (1990) report of the Doctors and Dentists Review Body—and by the Monopolies and Mergers Commission, published in 1994.
The OME gave average weekly hours spent on all national health service activities including emergency recall in 1989 as:
Contract type Hours Whole time 49.4 Maximum part-time (MPT) 47.7 Other part-time 36.3 Honorary 54.4 Whole time and MPT 48.6 The MMC estimated that mean weekly hours spent by consultants on NHS and private practice work in 1992 were as follows:
Contract type NHS hours Private practice hours Whole time 53 6 Maximum part-time 51 11 Less than maximum part-time 45 16 Consultants on whole-time and maximum part-time contracts are required to devote substantially the whole of their professional time to NHS work. Maximum part-time consultants forgo one eleventh of their salary in return for no limit on private practice earnings.
§ Mrs. BeckettTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what information she has on the proportion of time spent by consultants on administration in the last 10 years. [30252]
§ Mr. MaloneThis information is not available centrally.