Written question asked by Andrew George (Liberal Democrat) on Tuesday, 27 January 2004, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 4 February 2004. It was answered by Lord Hutton of Furness (Labour) on Wednesday, 4 February 2004 on behalf of the Department of Health.

Dept of Health

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what criteria his Department used to decide on the (a) location and (b) number of training places for consultants in grown-up congenital heart abnormality.

Answer: Andrew George: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what criteria his Department used to decide on the (a) location and (b) number of training places for consultants in grown-up congenital heart abnormality. [152166] Mr. Hutton: The Department makes decisions about the allocation of consultant training places or national training numbers (NTNs) each year. This includes decisions about NTNs in cardiology, which includes adult congenital heart disease. The decisions are based on intelligence collated from local and national bodies on workforce needs and are a balance of the needs of all medical specialties. The number of NTNs allocated to cardiology is made in consultation with the National Clinical Director for heart disease. New training places in cardiology are distributed to sites that have available training capacity and where possible are distributed nationally to areas which are most under-resourced.

Secondary information