Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, how many NHS healthcare staff have been deployed to aid the response to Ebola in (a) West Africa and (b) each country.

DFID, with the collaboration of UK-Med, NHS England and Department of Health, are arranging a pipeline of staff for the UK Ebola Response in Sierra Leone, using the UK International Emergency Medical Register (UKIEMR). NHS staff deployed through the UKIEMR remain employed by their NHS Trust.

58 NHS staff have been already deployed through UKIEMR to support partners managing Ebola Treatment Centres in Sierra Leone. Some 20 NHS staff will be deployed to Sierra Leone later this month, followed by a further deployment of up to 62 staff in early 2015. Deployments beyond this point will be determined according to need. Additional NHS staff may have deployed independently to Ebola affected countries outside of the UKIEMR mechanism.

All NHS staff deploying to Sierra Leone receive specialist pre-deployment training in addition to continued training and mentoring in-country.