NHS: Accident and Emergency Services

Baroness Masham of Ilton Excerpts

Thursday 25th July 2013 Lords Chamber

[Earl Howe]

That is very much in the focus of Health Education England, which oversees workforce issues in the health service. There has been a shortage of A&E consultants for some time and Health Education England is looking at that area very carefully. A&E is a discipline that has not traditionally proved attractive to trainee doctors for a number of reasons. It is very stressful and the remuneration is perhaps less than in other areas of medicine. That needs to be addressed and is very much an area of scrutiny.

[Baroness Masham of Ilton]

My Lords, following on from that, is the Minister aware that half as many again emergency doctors are needed? What is he going to do about recruiting?

[Earl Howe]

As I have just said to the noble Baroness, there are no instant fixes to this but we want to ensure that recruitment over the medium term is addressed and Health Education England is doing that.