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Health Professions: Manpower

Volume 486: debated on Thursday 15 January 2009

To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many individuals qualified as medical staff in the UK in each year since 1997; and what proportion of these currently work in the NHS. (247167)

The number of individuals who graduated medical education each year since 1997 is shown in the following table. However figures for UK graduates prior to 2000-01 are not available.

Academic year

Graduate output (England)

Graduate output (UK)

1997-98

3,261

1998-99

3,097

1999-2000

3,373

2000-01

3,286

4,269

2001-02

3,280

4,450

2002-03

3,522

4,641

2003-04

3,734

4,805

2004-05

3,935

5,176

2005-06

4,376

5,576

2006-07

4,904

6,208

2007-08

5,569

6,873

It is not possible to say what proportion currently work in the national health service as this information is not collected. However, the following table shows the number of house officers/foundation one posts since 1997. These figures show that there has been sufficient opportunities in the NHS to meet the medical school outputs.

House officer and foundation programme year 1

Number

1997

3,398

1998

3,496

1999

3,606

2000

3,691

2001

3,742

2002

4,010

2003

4,003

2004

4,273

2005

4,663

2006

4,905

2007

5,240