§ Mr. StinchcombeTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of the national shortage of(a) psychiatrists, (b) occupational therapists, (c) speech and language therapists, (d) GPs and (e) healthcare professionals engaged in palliative care in the national health service. [11086]
§ Mr. HuttonThe NHS Plan recognises that the national health service needs more staff and commits the Government to increasing the size of the NHS work force. By 2004 there will be 7,500 more consultants, 1,000 more specialist registrars, 2,000 more general practitioners,106W 20,000 extra nurses and over 6,500 extra therapists and other health professionals over a 1999 baseline. We have since rolled these targets forward and by 2005 there will be at least 10,000 more doctors and 20,000 more nurses over a 2000 baseline.
We are also increasing training numbers. Numbers of psychiatric specialist registrars (SpRs) are planned to increase by over 130 and palliative medicine SpRs by 15 during the period 2001 to 2004. There will be an additional 4,500 therapists and other health professionals (including occupational therapists and speech and language therapists) in the next three years as a result of the NHS Plan. We are also increasing general practitioner retainer numbers by 550 and nurse training commissions by 5,500 over the next three years.
The increases in all staff groups are essential for delivering the service improvements set out in the NHS Plan and improving access and delivering quality services at the right time in the right place.