Health Professions: Vacancies

(asked on 29th March 2018) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many hospital consultant posts are vacant; and what steps his Department is taking to ensure the adequacy of the number of hospital consultants working in the NHS.


Answered by
Steve Barclay Portrait
Steve Barclay
Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
This question was answered on 16th April 2018

The Department does not hold information on the number of hospital consultant posts which are vacant.

The Department has committed to a historic expansion of 1,500 undergraduate medical school places. On 20 March 2018, my Rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State announced the allocation of the new medical school places in England, including places at five brand new medical schools in Lancashire (Edge Hill University), Sunderland, Chelmsford (Anglia Ruskin University), Lincoln and Canterbury. Of the 1,500 new places, 630 will be available to students from this September.

As at latest NHS Digital data, at December 2017, there are record numbers of full time equivalent consultants (including directors of public health) employed in the National Health Service, an increase of 10,249 (28.6%) since May 2010, up from 35,880 to 46,130 in December 2017.

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