Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many retired medical professionals have had their licence to practise temporarily restored by the General Medical Council during the covid-19 outbreak; and how many of those medical professionals have returned to work in the NHS.
As of 6 May, the General Medical Council has added 28,820 medical practitioners to the register to support the Government’s response to the COVID-19 epidemic. This includes, but is not limited to, retired medical practitioners.
As of 7 May, more than 40,600 individuals across a number of healthcare professions have contacted NHS England to return to practice, including over 16,700 medical practitioners. Over 10,700 of these professionals have been allocated to National Health Service trusts or 111 services.