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 the number of consultants in (a) Lincolnshire NHS Trust and (b) other (i) rural and (ii) semi-rural areas; and if he will review (A) funding allocations and (B) workforce planning to ensure urgent cases are seen in a clinically appropriate timeframe.

We will publish a 10 Year Workforce Plan to create a workforce ready to deliver a transformed service. They will be more empowered, more flexible, and more fulfilled. We will ensure the National Health Service has the right people in the right places, with the right skills to deliver the best care for patients, when they need it.

Doctors are more likely to settle and practice in the areas they train. We will work with the university and college sector to ensure we train and provide the staff, technology, and infrastructure the NHS needs to care for patients across our communities, including in rural and semi-rural areas such as Lincolnshire.

NHS England regularly keeps its funding allocations under review, and as set out in our recently published 10-Year Health Plan, we will break the old, short-term cycle of planning, and will ask all organisations to prepare robust and realistic five-year plans. Every organisation will be required to continue to refresh their plans over the medium term.

Decisions about recruitment in individual NHS trusts are a matter for those trusts, who manage this at a local level to ensure they have the staff they need to deliver safe and effective care.