Ms Vanessa Hetherington:

On the issue of the higher specialist training posts, there is an absolute mismatch.

For example, we have a great shortage of psychiatrists. Although we have 60 people leaving basic specialist training, very few of them can get onto higher specialist training because there simply are not enough posts. Many of the approximately 30 posts that exist are being filled by people referred from previous years. Only six posts are left open this year to that cohort of 60 people leaving basic specialist training. There is, therefore, a great need to increase the number of higher specialist training posts.