As independent contractorsunder the new General Medical Services contract, general practitioners aregenerally not employees of NHS boards so data on vacancies is not centrallyheld.

If there are any traineedoctors in Scotland who have been unable to secure a place on the generalpractitioner training programme, career advice will be provided by their generalpractitioner director of education.

The policy is that anaccident and emergency ambulance should be double crewed, with at least onecrew member being a paramedic unless in exceptional circumstances, such asshort notice sick absence or leave where cover cannot be secured.

Prior to August 2007,training to be a general practitioner was either through the General PracticeVocational Training Scheme or through a self-construct approach. Both routesrequired a final year as a General Practice Registrar (GPR). From August 2007,the training programme comprises three years, the final year of which remainsas a GPR. The number of places is therefore given for the final GPR year only.Prior to and including 2003-04 the number of GPR training places remainedconstant at 250. From 2004-05 to 2006-07 there were 280 places. In 2007-08 thishas increased to 300 places.

The annual workforceplanning process, which is informed by local and national input, takes account,on an iterative basis, of any anticipated future changes to the workforce inNHSScotland. Work on implementation of the Kerr report is ongoing and includesconsideration of the whole healthcare team and the changing roles required.

I refer the member to thequestion S3W-2062 answered on 26 July 2007. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at:http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

The Scottish Governmentrecognises the importance to patients of reducing waiting times for allservices. Current waiting times targets and guarantees include only thoseservices that are provided or led by consultant staff. There can be significantvariations in the maximum waiting time to see other healthcare professionals,including physiotherapists. I have already announced our intention to develop and publish by the end of this year arefreshed action plan to implement the principles for health care policy anddelivery that were outlined in the Kerr report. Our action plan will include anew and ambitious target for NHS waiting times: a new whole journey waitingtime target of 18 weeks from general practitioner referral to treatment. Theaction plan will set out how we intend to meet the target by December 2011, andthe range of services to which it will apply.

The implementation of equalpay agreements in local government is a matter for local authorities and theinformation requested is not held centrally.

For the last two years, the Scottish Executive have been involved in discussions with the other UK HealthDepartments on a new contract for staff and associate specialist grade doctors.These discussions have now concluded and the new contract is currently underconsideration by the Public Sector Pay Committee. Once this process has concluded,we will consider how we might wish to move forward.

I refer the member to the questionS3W-1769 answered on 19 July 2007. All answersto written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website,the search facility for which can be found at:http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.