Chronic Respiratory Disease (Hansard, 8 January 2002)

HC Deb 08 January 2002 vol 377 c656W 656W

§ Mr. Burns
To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what is the ratio of respiratory specialists in England to people suffering from a chronic respiratory disease; [24705]
(2) how many respiratory specialists are practising in England. [24706]

§ Mr. Hutton
As at 30 September 2000, there were 950 hospital medical staff within the respiratory medicine speciality in England, of which 440 were consultants.
Our projections show that there will be an increase of around 150 trained specialists in respiratory medicine available to take up consultant posts by 2004.
Information is not collected centrally about the number of people suffering from chronic respiratory disease, so we are unable to provide the ratio requested.