Written question asked by Gordon Prentice (Labour) on Tuesday, 18 December 2001, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 21 January 2002. It was answered by Lord Hutton of Furness (Labour) on Monday, 21 January 2002 on behalf of the Department of Health.

Dept of Health

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many general practitioners are due to retire in (a) Pendle and (b) the East Lancashire Health Authority in each year up to 2005; and what steps he is taking to ensure that there are sufficient numbers of younger general practitioners so that no practice closes. - Inc fact that figures are not available centrally in the requested format.

Answer: Mr. Gordon Prentice: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many general practitioners are due to retire in (a) Pendle and (b) the East Lancashire health authority in each year up to 2005; and what steps he is taking to ensure that there are sufficient numbers of younger general practitioners so that no practice closes. [24979] Mr. Hutton: Figures are not available centrally in the requested format. However, during 2002-03, 14 general practitioners in the East Lancashire health authority area are expected to retire. A further eight GPs are due to retire during 2003-04. 18 GPs currently within the Pendle Primary Care Group are aged over 55. East Lancashire health authority are pursuing a number of initiatives both in the long and short term to help address the problems in recruiting and retaining GPs. Note: These figures have been extracted from a study by Lancashire university in 1998 relating to work force planning for general medical and other primary care staff.

Secondary information