Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to increase training facilities for surgeons in the East of England.

All local education providers, including in the East of England, are responsible for ensuring they have the appropriate capacity, including facilities, for training staff, including surgeons.

The General Medical Council’s (GMC’s) Promoting excellence: standards for medical education and training sets out the standards that the GMC expects organisations responsible for educating and training medical students and doctors in the United Kingdom to meet. This includes having the capacity, resources, and facilities to deliver safe and relevant learning opportunities, clinical supervision, and practical experiences for learners.

NHS England’s Education Quality Framework states that all staff, including learners and educators, should have access to the necessary resources, facilities, and equipment to ensure their safety within the workplace and to deliver safe clinical care. The framework is monitored locally in collaboration with medical schools. In addition, NHS England’s NHS Education Funding Agreement sets out in detail the expectations around the premises and facilities of placement providers.