PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Bedford Hospital NHS Trust: Vacancies (2 October 2019)

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions his Department has had with representatives of local health providers on medical staff vacancies at Bedford Hospital NHS Trust; and how many and what proportion of vacancies there are in each discipline.

Asked by:
Mohammad Yasin (Labour)

It is the responsibility of employers to develop workforce plans to meet their local service needs. As such, there have been no specific discussions regarding medical staff vacancies at the Bedford Hospital NHS Trust between Departmental Ministers and health providers in the Bedford area.

NHS Improvement data shows that in England, approximately 86% of the 11,000 doctor vacancies are filled by bank (49%) and agency (51%) staff. There are over 700 (6%) fewer doctor vacancies than last year. Bank and agency staff are not solely used to fill the vacancies. In addition to the vacancy gap, the bank and agency staff also cover absence due to sickness leave, maternity/paternity and career breaks.

The latest NHS Improvement vacancy statistics are available at the following link:

https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/nhs-vacancies-survey/february-2015---june-2019-provisional-experimental-statistics

Answered by:
Edward Argar (Conservative)
7 October 2019