Psychiatrists

Baroness Parminter Excerpts

Monday 21st October 2019 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Baroness Parminter]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to tackle the shortage of psychiatrists in the United Kingdom.

[Lord Bethell (Con)]

Expanding the mental health workforce, including psychiatry consultants, is an important priority for this Government. We are not complacent about the scale of this historic challenge. In particular, we are focused on driving forward work to improve recruitment in psychiatry, including working with the Royal College of Psychiatrists on its excellent Choose Psychiatry campaign. Our NHS interim plan has also set out a wide range of actions that we will take to reduce the number of vacancies and secure the staff we need for the future.

[Baroness Parminter (LD)]

Vacancy rates for psychiatric posts have doubled in the past six years. Eating disorder services are particularly affected, contributing to lengthy waiting times for treatment, which can be life threatening given the mortality rates for anorexia. Will the Government agree to double the number of medical school places over the next 10 years to deliver more psychiatrists and better care for people suffering from eating disorders?

[Lord Bethell]

The Government recognise the issue with recruitment, in particular at the higher, consultant end, where it takes 14 years to train a consultant. There is undoubtedly an issue with filling all those places. The work of the noble Baroness on eating disorders is well known and the Government are very focused on that issue; in fact, we announced in 2014 that we would invest £150 million to expand community-based care for children and young people with eating disorders. Recruitment remains an issue that concerns us and we are focused on responding to it.