John Leech MP Backs Junior Doctors
10.54.40pm UTC (GMT +0000) Sun 18th Mar 2007
Liberal Democrat MP for Manchester Withington John Leech is supporting calls from health professionals for action to correct faults afflicting the Government's new applications process for junior doctors.
Commenting as doctors from South Manchester today joined a mass demonstration in London against the failings of the new applications process, which will leave thousands of doctors jobless this summer, John Leech MP said:
"Doctors have voiced their concerns about the Government's system since last summer but ministers refused to listen. I have received dozens of letters and e-mails from Doctors living in my constituency on the subject and I have pursued their concerns with the Secretary of State for Health on numerous occasions. The reply has always been to reassure that there would be not be a crisis as a result of this latest NHS shake up. Yet thousands of junior doctors facing unemployment sounds like a crisis to me!"
The IT system devised to select doctors for job interviews has been seen as a failure, and 9 out of 10 doctors in a poll have called for those in charge of the new system to be sacked.
John Leech MP continued:
"This recruitment round must be suspended immediately in order to salvage any remaining confidence in the system. How can interviews continue when the selection process is clearly flawed?"
"New IT provision is no substitute for basic common sense and sensible forethought. This Government seems seduced by the technology which is further evidence of their inability to deliver effective public services."
"I am horrified to learn that 6,000 doctors will end up jobless as a result of this incompetence. It is estimated to have cost the taxpayer over a billion pounds to train these doctors. This is a criminal waste of talent and the money spent on their training."
"Yet again, the Government has rammed through reform in the NHS without testing it or properly assessing the effects it would have."
ENDS
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