Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many hospital consultant posts are vacant; and what steps his Department is taking to ensure that there is an adequate number of hospital consultants working in the NHS.

The number of hospital consultant posts that are vacant is not collected by the Department. The latest workforce data published by NHS Digital shows that as at September 2016 there are 106,131 full time equivalent (FTE) doctors working in the National Health Service in England, of which 44,333 are consultants. This is an overall increase of almost 11,400 (FTE) more doctors since May 2010, of which over 8,400 (23.6%) are consultants.

Health Education England (HEE) is responsible for ensuring that there is sufficient future supply of staff to meet the workforce requirements of the English health system, taking into account issues such as demographic changes.

In delivering its annual workforce plan for England HEE undertakes extensive discussions with NHS organisations, arm’s length bodies and Royal Colleges to understand future workforce requirements. HEE takes into account future demand for services in arriving at the final numbers it will commission.