Two in five consultant posts were unfilled last year

Jane Dacre, the president of the Royal College of Physicians, asked the health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, how he proposes to provide a safe seven day NHS without adequate numbers of doctors, at the college’s annual conference on 15 March.

Dacre said that trusts have found themselves unable to fill new posts that were created to meet demands in patient care. She said, “Over the last year, our census data shows that 40% of consultant physician posts remain unfilled, nearly always due to a lack of candidates.

“If 40% of teaching or policing posts were unfilled, …