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 in England.

Health Education England created five additional training posts for neurology for 2023, with NHS England having created a further 10 additional posts for neurology for 2024. The NHS Long Term Workforce Plan (LTWP) published by NHS England in June 2023 sets out an aim to double the number of medical school places in England to 15,000 places a year by 2031/32, and to work towards this expansion by increasing places by a third, to 10,000 a year, by 2028/29.

The LTWP commits to an adequate growth in foundation placement capacity, as those taking up these new places begin to graduate, and a commensurate increase in specialty training places that meets the demands of the National Health Service in the future. This will substantially increase the potential pipeline for the neurology workforce.

As of November 2023, there are 1,788 full-time equivalent (FTE) doctors working in the specialty of neurology working in NHS trusts and other core organisations in England which is an increase of 741 or 70.7% compared to 2010. This includes 932 FTE consultants which is 396 or 73.9% more than in 2010.