§ Baroness Masham of Iltonasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether, following the announcement by the Department of Health that 11 surgical training places have been added, there are sufficient numbers of doctors currently training as transplant surgeons; and whether they plan to provide further surgical training places to meet demand; and [HL1380]
What proportion of the additional 35,000 nurses that they intend to recruit by 2008 will be working in critical care; and whether this proportion will meet the demand for critical care nurses, as outlined in the recently published Transplant Framework for England, Saving Lives, Valuing Donors. [HL1381]
§ Lord WarnerTransplant surgery is a sub-specialty of general surgery. The Department of Health does not collect data at sub-specialty level.
In 2001–02, 11 national training numbers were allocated specifically to fund specialist training in transplant surgery, following a review of' the supply of consultants in general surgery.
We recognise that transplantation is a highly specialised area and the current growth in the system 96WA will increase the numbers of trained specialists available to take up consultant posts in the future. We will continue to monitor future national workforce levels and to make recommendations on training issues in all specialties.
The projection for an extra 35,000 nurses by 2008 is not broken down by area of work and information is not collected centrally on the number of critical care nurses employed in the National Health Service.
The Transplant Framework states that it is for the NHS, primary care trusts and NHS providers working together, to develop transplant services and to consider investing in additional workforce, critical care and theatre capacity to meet anticipated extra transplant activity.