§ Dr. FoxTo ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will publish an evaluation of the NHS Executive North West's recruitment of foreign general practitioners. [24601]
§ Mr. HuttonI apologise to the hon. Member for the delay in responding to this question. I refer the hon. Member to the reply that my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State gave my hon. Friend the Member for Blackpool, North and Fleetwood (Mrs. Humble) on 5 March 2002,Official Report, column 192W.
The Department is working with the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges to establish a suitable evaluation process for the international recruitment programme including the recruitment of general practitioners from abroad in the north-west.
§ Mr. Gordon PrenticeTo ask the Secretary of State for Health how many and what percentage of GPs in(a) Pendle and (b) East Lancashire are due to retire before 2004; what steps he is taking to attract young doctors to the area; and if he will make a statement. [12046]
§ Ms AbbottI apologise to my hon. Friend for the delay in responding to this question. I refer my hon. Friend to the reply that my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State gave my hon. Friend the Member for Blackpool, North and Fleetwood (Mrs. Humble) on 5 March 2002Official Report, column 192W.
Figures are not available centrally in the format requested. However, during 2002–03, 14 (5.1 per cent.) general practitioners (GPs) in the East Lancashire Health Authority area are expected to retire. A further 8 (2.9 per cent.) GPs are due to retire during 2003–04.
18 GPs currently within the Pendle Primary Care Group are aged over 55.
East Lancashire Health Authority is pursuing a number of initiatives both in the long and short term to help address the problems in recruiting and retaining GPs.
Notes:
These figures have been extracted from a study by Lancashire University in 1998 relating to workforce planning for general medical and other primary care staff.
§ Dr. FoxTo ask the Secretary of State for Health how many GPs are expected to be recruited to carry out GP appraisals; if these GPs will be expected to continue in general practice; what remuneration they will receive for806W performing appraisals; and what estimate has been made of the amount of time a GP appraiser would be expected to spend on appraisals in a calendar year. [12711]
§ Mr. Hutton[holding answer 6 November 2001]: I apologise to the hon. Member for the delay in responding to this question. I refer the hon. Member to the reply that my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State gave my hon. Friend the Member for Blackpool, North and Fleetwood (Mrs. Humble) on 5 March 2002,Official Report, column 192W.
General practitioners (GPs) who are to be GP appraisers should be practising general practitioners. To date, primary care trusts and groups have identified over 900 such GPs to participate in the initial appraiser training programme, which starts this month.
This programme is intended to provide an initial cohort of trained GP appraisers. It is, however, for Primary Care Trusts themselves, working with their local GPs, to decide how many GP appraisers they each need, the level of commitment required and the remuneration to offer. These decisions may be informed by the work commissioned by my Department from the School of Health and Related Research at the University of Sheffield which suggests it is reasonable to expect a GP appraiser to undertake between 10 and 25 appraisals annually.