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 help increase the number of qualified neurologists.

The number of doctors who accepted a specialty training post in neurology increased by 20% from 44 in 2021 to 53 in 2022.

In January 2023, Health Education England announced that nearly 900 additional medical specialty training posts have been created for this year, including five additional training posts for neurology.

The Government has funded 1,500 (25%) more medical school places each year for domestic students in England, a 25% increase over three years. This expansion was completed in September 2020 and has delivered five new medical schools in England. This expansion will increase the supply pipeline in coming years for qualified doctors, including neurologists.

As of October 2022 there are 1,672 full-time equivalent neurologists working in the National Health Service. This is an increase of 559 (50.3%) from 10 years ago (October 2012).