Crispin Blunt

Conservative Party | Reigate

Health Secretary heeds warning from East Surrey doctors Local MP raises concerns in House of Commons

The Health Secretary, Patricia Hewitt, yesterday conceded that she was looking into arrangements for junior doctors this summer following questions from Reigate MP Crispin Blunt. In October last year Mr Blunt met with junior doctors from East Surrey hospital. They raised concerns that on 1st August 2007 every junior doctor and registrar in the country would be attending induction courses and not attending to patients. Mr Blunt sought urgent clarification in a parliamentary question. Speaking in the House of Commons on 19th March 2007 he made clear his concerns:

“The parliamentary questions that I have tabled on this matter have resulted in answers of the most stunning complacency. Apparently between 1st and 3rd August almost every junior doctor or registrar will be involved in induction training in hospitals up and down the country leaving only consultants available to provide doctor cover. Is the Secretary of State aware of this potential problem, and is she going to do anything to avert it before it happens?”

Yesterday Mr Blunt raised the issue with the Health Secretary for a fourth time. Ms Hewitt admitted that following Mr Blunt’s previous inquiries she was looking into the matter:

“In the light of the question the hon. Gentleman asked me on a previous occasion in this House, I have asked for a full briefing on that subject and I shall be happy to write to him when I have more information.”

The confusion over simultaneous inductions adds to widespread fears that reforms of junior doctors’ career structure will cause chaos in the NHS. On 17th March some 12,000 doctors were joined by Conservative Leader David Cameron when they marched in London to protest against the reform program – Modernising Medical Careers.

Speaking from East Surrey Hospital today, junior doctor and local councillor Ben Mearns said:

“I am delighted that Patricia Hewitt has at last agreed to look into this. Patients face three days of potential chaos this August. How can a hospital begin to function without adequate medical staff on hand to look after patients? I hope that even at this late stage the Department of Health with step back from a program that will see some of the best doctors leaving the NHS with all the impact on patient care that would entail.”

Crispin Blunt, speaking in Westminster, said:

“It is thanks to the commitment of young doctors like Ben Mearns that the Government is finally admitting the need to think again. I have been delighted by this new-found activism among a group of doctors who care for their patients and for the NHS. However, we should remember that doctors should not have to march in the streets to fight for their jobs – they should be where they want to be: on the ward, in the operating theatre and at their surgeries caring for the people that in the long run will be let down by this Government’s meddlesome approach to the health service. With the prospect of all junior doctors otherwise engaged and at a time when many consultants will be on their summer holidays I still strongly advise my constituents, and indeed everyone else, not to need to got to hospital at the start of August.”