More doctors clearlyneeded: McLaughlin

She made the comments as she released research briefings prepared for her by the Northern Ireland Assembly’s research and library service.

She said: “Northern Ireland has 3.6 doctors per thousand people on the medical register with a licence to practice, compared to 3.8 per thousand people in England and 3.9 in Scotland.

“This demonstrates that Northern Ireland needs literally hundreds of more doctors to bring our health service up to the level of provision in England and Scotland.”

One of the briefing papers, entitled ‘Mapping HSC Medical Workforce and Vacancies’ and prepared by Stormont researcher Keara McKay, refers to a large increase in vacancies in the Western Trust since 2017.

Between March 2017 and December 2019 the number of vacancies in the Western Trust rose from 529 to 1,026.

Information released to the SDLP MLA by the Health Minister Robin Swann show that at the start of the year 180 of those 1,026 vacancies were at doctor grade.

In 2018/19 the Western Trust spent £20,656,870 on expensive locum doctors, higher than any other health authority apart from Belfast, where the equivalent expenditure was £22,430,062.

“Worse still, at the end of last year – even before COVID-19 - there were more than a thousand vacancies for medical professionals in the Western Trust area.

“This is clear evidence that the final decision on the Magee Medical School must be made urgently, enabling students to enroll from September next year,” said Mrs. McLaughlin.