Oral question asked in the House of Lords, by Earl Howe (Conservative). It was answered on Thursday, 18 December 2008.

Health: Physicians

Question: My Lords, will the Minister concede that the problem over the past few years has been that workforce planning has been something of a mess? As my noble friend said, there is a shortage of consultants in key specialties, yet there is an oversupply of doctors who have competed their basic training but who cannot find a consultant’s job. What specific measures are the Government taking to address that?

Answer: My Lords, the workforce planning cycle coming into force begins with primary care trusts and local councils commissioning services to meet the healthcare needs of their local populations. In other words, we are no longer setting national targets. We did that some time ago to boost the number of doctors, clinicians and professionals that we needed in the healthcare service. The restructuring and decentralisation should mean that increased recruitment of professionally qualified staff, including GPs, will have an impact on the training and the number of hospital doctors who will have a sufficient case-load volume to achieve the best outcomes.

Secondary information