Within the consultations and research undertaken by the consultants, significant workforce shortages were identified in three of the ten sample specialties - pathology, psychiatry and rehabilitation medicine.
It was noted that an expansion of training settings could be implemented to an extent greater than that identified purely for educational purposes, in order to increase the number of training positions in these specialties. A greater number of specialist training positions and trainees would therefore have the additional benefit of increasing the future workforce and providing greater service delivery.
For the specialties with an identified workforce shortage - pathology, psychiatry and rehabilitation medicine - extra training positions of 400, 350, and 50 (respectively) in an expanded range of training settings were also modelled. Similar considerations may apply to some of the other specialties not surveyed.