Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she plans to increase the specialist cardiology workforce in (a) primary and (b) secondary care.

There are currently 3,738 full time equivalent doctors working in the specialty of cardiology in the National Health Service in England. This is 666 (21.7%) more than in 2019. Within this there are 1,653 full time equivalent consultants working in the speciality of cardiology, 278 (20.2%) more than in 2019.

The NHS Long Term Workforce Plan (LTWP), published by NHS England on 30 June 2023, sets out our aim to double the number of medical school places in England to 15,000 places a year by 2031/32. It also sets out how we will 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 NHS in the future. This will substantially increase the potential pipeline for the cardiologist workforce in primary and secondary care.