Hospitals: Consultants
(asked on 24th June 2019) - View Source
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many medical consultants were employed by the NHS in each financial year since 2015; and what the ratio was of people becoming consultants compared to the number vacating that position in each of those financial years.
NHS Digital publishes Hospital and Community Health Services workforce statistics. These include staff working in hospital trusts and clinical commissioning groups (CCGs), but not staff working in primary care or in general practitioner surgeries, local authorities or other providers.
The following table shows the number of medical consultants who work in National Health Service trusts and CCGs in England as at March each year, full time equivalent.
| Number of Medical Consultants |
March 2015 | 42,100 |
March 2016 | 43,600 |
March 2017 | 45,100 |
March 2018 | 46,600 |
March 2019 | 48,000 |
Source: NHS Digital workforce statistics
The following table shows the number of joiners to and leavers from the consultant staff group and the ratio of joiners to leavers, in NHS trusts and CCGs in England, between 31 March 2015 to 31 March 2019, headcount.
| Joiners | Leavers | Ratio of Joiners to Leavers |
March 2015 - March 2016 | 4,360 | 2,734 | 1.59 |
March 2016 - March 2017 | 4,469 | 2,822 | 1.58 |
March 2017 - March 2018 | 4,678 | 3,014 | 1.55 |
March 2018 - March 2019 | 4,537 | 2,990 | 1.52 |
Source: NHS Digital workforce statistics