Vol. 513 No. 1
408 Mr. Allen asked the Minister for Health and Children if he will raise the ratio of doctors to achieve consultant manpower levels on a par with Scotland within five years, resulting in an extra 360 fully qualified consultants posts as well as 270 non-consultant hospital doctor posts. [1192/00]
I have previously referred to the work of the Forum on Medical Manpower which I established in 1999 to consider the entire question of the future medical staffing of hospitals. The forum is about to publish an interim report. I would prefer to await the recommendations of the forum before commenting on any specific proposal to increase the members of particular categories of doctors.
