APPENDIX 55
Memorandum by Dr Janet Wilson (SH 90)
1.I am writing this in my capacity as Chairman of
the Specialist Advisory Committee in Genitourinary Medicine. This
is the training committee, which through the Joint Committee on
Higher Medical Training of the Royal Colleges of Physicians is
responsible for training of Specialist Registrars in Genitourinary
Medicine.
2.The Specialist Advisory Committee has highlighted
a potential problem in our specialty over the next two to three
years. In 2002, 2003 and 2004 we are expecting 31, 39, and 33
Specialist Registrars to complete their training and to go onto
the Specialist Register. We are concerned because there may not
be enough consultant posts available for them. The numbers of
Specialist Registrars are calculated very carefully by the Workforce
Numbers Advisory Board, and are based on the numbers of expected
consultant retirements and new consultant posts. However Genitourinary
Medicine has had low consultant expansion over the past years
with the figures being well below the average for all medical
specialties. Over the past 10 years consultant numbers in Genitourinary
Medicine have increased by 30% compared with an increase of 43.8%
for all medical specialties. More recently consultant expansion
has fallen further to 1.6% between 1999 and 2000 compared with
4.6% for all medical specialties. As to reasons for this, I can
only comment on my own experience, but in my Trust priority has
been given to new consultant posts in Department of Health priority
areas and to help improve waiting lists. Because of this lower
than average consultant expansion we may not have enough consultant
posts for all of our trainees in the next few years. This is obviously
a situation we wish to avoid. It is bad for the morale of our
current trainees and it may have a "knock on" effect
for future recruitment, even when consultant posts do become available,
as I believe has happened in Obstetrics and Gynaecology.
3.Yet, as I'm sure will be explained by many others,
there is a desperate need for more consultants in our specialty.
So we are in the ludicrous situation of the clinical services
desperately needing more consultants in Genitourinary Medicine,
we are training the junior doctors for those posts, yet the posts
are not being created.
4.I would like the Committee to recommend that priority
be given to the necessary consultant expansion in Genitourinary
Medicine.
June 2002
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