HC Deb 13 February 1996 vol 271 c561W
Ms Harman

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what has been the average annual amount of study leave given to junior doctors in each of the last three years. [14851]

Mr. Malone

This information is not available centrally.

Ms Harman

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimate he has made of the number of junior doctors leaving the NHS each year. [14853]

Mr. Malone

Information is not available in the form requested. The Department supports studies by the medical careers research group the Oxford unit of healthcare epidemiology to examine wastage from the profession and other career patterns. Wastage rates appear to have declined recently. Of those who qualified in the mid-1970s, nearly 20 per cent. were not working in medicine in the United Kingdom 10 years later. Provisional data indicate that the comparable figure for those who qualified in the 1980s was around 15 per cent. Many of these doctors will be temporarily abroad, on a career break or in alternative medical employment and may well return to the NHS in the future.