Doctors protest at reforms that ‘could jeopardise patient safety’
From Mmc
Doctors protest at reforms that ‘could jeopardise patient safety’
By Judith Duffy, Health Correspondent
THOUSANDS OF doctors took to the streets yesterday in protest at reforms which they claim could jeopardise patient safety.
Demonstrations organised by junior doctors group RemedyUK were held in London and Glasgow, despite last-minute promises from ministers of new measures to address their concerns.
The furore has been triggered by the Modernising Medical Careers (MMC) programme, which is claimed to have descended into "chaos". advertisement
It was introduced by the Department of Health earlier this year to centralise the training programme and allow junior doctors to reach consultant level more quickly.
But the computerised application process for the specialist posts has been much criticised for making candidates answer "woolly" questions and not allowing them to submit any extra supporting material, such as CVs. The website has also reportedly been hit by a series of system crashes.
More than 30,000 trainee doctors have also applied for up to 22,000 posts, a proportion of which have been allocated for the most junior candidates. Medics fear this could mean many - including the most experienced applicants - will either fail to secure one of the posts or be forced to take up jobs in specialist areas which they have little interest in.
In Scotland, junior doctors also have to face the problem of no longer being able to apply for jobs in a certain hospital or region, instead being placed anywhere in the country.
Campaigners and MSPs - including the SNP's Shona Robison and independent MSP Dr Jean Turner - addressed a crowd of hundreds in Glasgow's George Square yesterday.
Dr Kevin Cormack, a Scottish representative for RemedyUK, pointed out that doctors were generally "not terribly politically active". "If there are that many doctors angry, the government should sit up and take notice as it means there is something terribly wrong," he said.
"We want the people of Britain to know what the government has been doing to its health service, and let them know their lives will be in danger because of the changes the government is making to our training."
Dr Graeme Eunson, chairman of the British Medical Association Scotland's junior doctors committee, conceded that the Scottish Executive had been listening to their concerns, but said it was a "UK-wide problem".
"Ultimately responsibility for sorting this lies with Patricia Hewitt and the Department of Health down south," he said. "If she is not going to be able to fix it, then she should do the decent thing and resign."
Among the speakers at the rally was Professor Gordon Dutton, a consultant opthamologist at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Glasgow, who told how he had refused to carry out interviews under the MMC system. "The system which has been applied is an insult to the medical profession," he said.
Also attending the event was junior doctor Dmitri Van Popta, from Stirling, who has five years' experience working in orthopaedics. He failed to secure any interviews for orthopaedic positions in the first round of applications, along with seven other colleagues in his department.
"This goes to show that the experienced people are not being shortlisted for these training posts," he said. "I will have to wait and see, but I have studied for seven years to do this job and I don't want to just give all this up."
In London, several thousand medics marched from the Royal College of Physicians to the Royal College of Surgeons bearing banners.
In addition to organising the protests, RemedyUK is also investigating the possibility of taking legal action against the government. The Department of Health has promised to review the reforms.
