HC Deb 22 November 1995 vol 267 cc128-9W
Mr. Hugh Bayley

To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many vacant posts for(a) consultants and (b) other medical staff there were in English NHS trusts in each region on (i) 15 April 1994 and (ii) at the latest date for which figures are available in (1) psychiatry, (2) accident and emergency, (3) geriatric medicine, (4) general surgery, (5) anaesthetics, (6) general medicine and (7) obstetrics and gynaecology. [542]

Mr. Malone

This information is not available centrally.

Mr. Cohen

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans he has to introduce a system of assessment for(a) consultants and (b) general practitioners; and if he will make a statement. [326]

Mr. Malone

The report, "Maintaining Medical Excellence", made a number of recommendations to ensure that standards of professional performance are maintained at a higher level. For hospital doctors, it recommended that employers and professional bodies should explore the feasibility, costs and benefits of mentoring systems and report back. For general practitioners, it recommended that for regulatory purposes systems of objective assessment against a national framework should be introduced into vocational training, subject to satisfactory costing.

The report was issued for consultation in August and we are awaiting the outcome of the consultation exercise, which ends on 29 December 1995.