Question reference: S4W-27253
- Asked by: John Scott, MSP for Ayr, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
- Date lodged: 31 August 2015
-
Current status: Answered by Shona Robison on 14 September 2015
Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many consultants are due to retire in the next five years in each NHS board.
Answer
Scotland currently has record high numbers of consultants. Under this Government, consultants across Scotland have increased by 38.2% to 5,024.3 Whole Time Equivalent. We are working with NHS Boards to ensure safe, effective and high quality healthcare is delivered by the right professional at all times, and we are developing better intelligence through robust medical workforce supply and demand profiles which take into account the effects of consultant retirement and other factors. In accordance with current legislation, we can no longer presume a retiral age as this is discriminatory. As a result, information relating to numbers of NHS consultants retiring in the next five years is not available. However, the number of consultants in post who will have reached the age of 65 within the next five years can be found in the table below.
Number whole time equivalent of consultants who will have reached the age of 65 by financial year.
|
Retirement year |
2015-16 |
2016-17 |
2017-18 |
2018-19 |
2019-2020 |
Total |
|
Consultants |
65.5 |
27.4 |
48.5 |
45.4 |
71.8 |
258.6 |
It should be noted that not all staff that reach the average retirement age will retire as there is no legal requirement for them to do so.