Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of how the additional 400 clinical endoscopists recruited as part of Health Education England’s targets will free up more consultant Gastroenterologist time for more complex cases.

The latest information from Health Education England (HEE) shows that, to date, 130 trainees have been recruited on to HEE’s national training programme to train as clinical endoscopists. Those recruited will be trained to undertake procedures in either upper gastrointestinal endoscopy or flexible sigmoidoscopy.

It is for local trusts to determine, based on local service need and clinical case mix, how many procedures are undertaken by trained clinical endoscopists.

Salary support is not offered as standard by HEE for the clinical endoscopist training programme.