Junior Doctors Contract

Lord Tugendhat Excerpts

Monday 30th November 2015 Lords Chamber

[Lord Prior of Brampton]

I thank my noble friend for those comments. One of the issues often raised by junior doctors is that they do not always feel properly supported at weekends. I think that having more seniors available at weekends—and late at night, for that matter—will be welcomed by junior doctors. There is also sometimes a misunderstanding in the public mind, as junior doctors can actually be quite senior doctors. A medical registrar is, by most standards, a senior doctor so junior doctors are not just people who have recently finished their training.

[Lord Tugendhat (Con)]

My Lords, does the Minister agree that during the build-up to this strike, which has now happily been called off, a great burden was put on to the shoulders of the NHS management? It is often much maligned and compared unfavourably with the doctors and nurses and other medical staff but, once again, the management staff have shown their ability to rise to the challenge. I hope that the Minister might feel it appropriate to give them a word of praise.

[Lord Prior of Brampton]

I am delighted to do that, having been the chairman of an NHS trust for 12 years myself and knowing that my noble friend was chairman of the Imperial NHS trust and that the noble Lord, Lord Hunt, who is opposite, was chairman of the Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust. Given the pressure and stresses on management and the complexity of its day-to-day role, I think that no other organisation is as challenging as a large acute hospital. Managers have to do their work in the full glare of publicity as well and it is extremely difficult, so I certainly join my noble friend in paying tribute to the extraordinary work that many of them do in the NHS.