15.03.17
HEE: Significant work still do to make junior doctors feel valued
Significant work must be done to make junior doctors feel valued for their hard work in the NHS, a report published by Health Education England (HEE), which has also identified a number of key areas for improvement, has warned.
HEE worked with other organisations including the British Medical Association (BMA) Junior Doctors’ Committee, the General Medical Council, NHS Employers, the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges and trainee representatives to create the review that has called for action to be taken to improve working conditions for juniors.
The ‘Enhancing Junior Doctors’ Working Lives’ report gives a comprehensive view of the struggles experienced by junior doctors which led to mass dissatisfaction and strike action last year, warning that improvements had to be made in a number of areas to reassure the workforce that their work was being appreciated by their employers.
Areas identified for action included putting focus on adding value for healthcare staff, reducing inequality in study by not making essential train costs be totally borne by junior doctors, as well as creating more flexibility for deployment to benefit doctors who want to train in a specific area and also live in the same area as their partner.
One measure that was suggested to tackle these problems included a 12-month pilot allowing all emergency medicine higher trainees in England the opportunity to apply for LTFT (Less Than Full Time) training, regardless of their eligibility under the current Gold Guide criteria rules – something that would form part of a broader effort to make training more flexible and accommodating for juniors.
The report also advised that new legal protection should be put in place as a response to juniors raising concerns about patient safety.
Professor Wendy Reid, director of quality and education and medical director of HEE, said: “This report makes clear the excellent progress made on addressing some of the challenges that were highlighted to us by doctors in training ranging from new legal protection for juniors raising patient safety concerns and the impact on their training to an agreement that HEE will develop a policy to enable joint applications from couples.”
Prof Reid also pressed the importance of demonstrating to junior doctors that the NHS has listened to their concerns and that they were working to resolve them.
She added: “Junior doctors should not have to compromise their training to deliver the service.
“I am grateful to all those who have contributed to this work over the past eighteen months. There is clearly more to do, and HEE will work with all concerned to continue to raise the quality of training and the quality of doctors’ working lives.”
The BMA’s Junior Doctors’ Committee chair Jeeves Wijesuriya said that it was “absolutely vital” to improve training and working conditions for juniors, and that acting on the report’s proposals was vital to addressing the problems identified in the area.
“Junior doctors are still being asked to do impossible jobs around the country” he said, “working long hours in an NHS pushed to breaking point while also training to be the consultants, GPs and specialist doctors of tomorrow.
“We have warned NHS leaders and politicians that enough is enough and more action must be taken, otherwise the recruitment and retention workforce crisis in the NHS could worsen even further, with potentially drastic consequences. It is imperative that work continues to ensure training is fair, flexible and rewarding.”
The CEO of NHS Employers, Danny Mortimer also welcomed the report: “NHS leaders and the public have the highest respect for the talent and commitment of; junior doctors.
“We know they are, like other colleagues, feeling the impact of unprecedented demand and it’s absolutely right that organisations including the NHS Employers, the BMA and HEE should work together to develop improvements to their training and working arrangements.”
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