Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has to (a) attract and (b) retain more neurology specialists.

Neurology is a popular specialty and generally achieves a 100% fill rate for training places, with no significant attrition issues. A new curriculum is being introduced with increased emphasis on working and training in internal medicine and stroke as well as neurology, which will increase the number of trainees in the acute areas of neurology.

To improve the retention of all National Health Service staff, the NHS People Plan focuses on actions for organisations to build a more compassionate and inclusive culture. This includes a focus on staff health and wellbeing, support for flexible working and a renewed commitment to tackling inequality. The NHS Retention Programme is seeking to understand why staff leave, resulting in targeted interventions to support staff to stay whilst keeping them well.