Junior Doctors’ Contracts
Debate between Heidi Alexander and Simon Hoare(9 years ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Heidi Alexander
My hon. Friend is right. His concern is shared by the President of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, along with 14 other leaders of medical royal colleges and faculties, who point out that as currently proposed, the new contract would
“act as a disincentive to recruitment in posts that involve substantial evening and weekend shifts, as well as diminishing the morale of those doctors already working in challenging conditions.”
It cannot possibly be right.
Simon Hoare (North Dorset) (Con)
I am grateful to the hon. Lady for giving way and I join her in the praise that she issued in her opening remarks. What advice might she give the BMA, were she asked for it? Is it better for the BMA to get back around the table, so that the very important points that she is raising can be sorted out, or go straight to a ballot? Is it not better to talk first, then, if the BMA does not like it, by all means ballot? It is certainly doing it in the wrong way.
Heidi Alexander
The problem is that junior doctors are not convinced that the Secretary of State is negotiating in good faith.
When one talks to junior doctors about the proposed new contract, one thing is striking: pay is less important to them than patient safety.