Armed Forces: Retention of Medical Officers (Hansard, 24 October 2001)

§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Defence (Lord Bach)

The retention of experienced medical officers is a key element in our plans for restoring the operational capability of the Defence Medical Services (DMS). We recognise that both financial and non-financial measures have a part to play in improving retention. So far as financial measures are concerned, the Ministry of Defence submits evidence on the pay of DMS medical and dental officers each year to the Armed Forces Pay Review Body. This year, on the review body's recommendation, we have introduced commission transfer grants of £16,000 (gross before tax) to encourage medical officers who are general medical practitioners to transfer from short career commissions to longer commissions. We also keep under review the use of other financial incentives to encourage retention. We have addressed complaints by medical officers about differing terms of service between the three services and plans for implementing common terms of service are well advanced. Non-financial measures we have taken to help reduce overstretch and, thus, encourage retention include targeting recruitment at fully vocationally trained doctors and reducing the length and frequency of operational deployments for hospital specialists. We believe that the creation of the new Centre for Defence Medicine at Birmingham, which we intend will become a recognised centre of excellence in military medicine, is a further important factor in encourging both the recruitment and retention of medical officers.