20.01.12
A fighting chance
Chronic shortages of doctors have led to some bizarre solutions: but using the Army?
While the armed forces undoubtedly have trained medical professionals who would have sufficient experience to provide care, this is not their job.
If trusts need to look this far for doctors, there is something wrong within their system, either through lack of training to get junior medics to an acceptable level, or in their recruitment drives to hire experienced doctors.
But the DH is denying there is a problem at all, and states that there has been no contact between Mid Yorkshire Hospital Trust and the MoD.
While this may be true, if there really is a shortage, then refusing to admit this leads to a lack of support for a trust that may be struggling to deliver sufficient standards of care.
It is hard to see why the trust would invent such an absurd idea unless it was the case that they were that desperate for doctors. In which case a flat denial of their problems will benefit no-one.
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