Junior Doctors Contract

Lord Lansley Excerpts

Monday 30th November 2015 Lords Chamber

[Lord Prior of Brampton]

There is a recognition that the weekend effect is caused by many factors. It is certainly not just the ability of trusts to roster junior doctors at weekends but the absence of senior cover and the fact that much diagnostic capacity is not available at weekends. Of course, you also have to be able to discharge patients at weekends, which means that social care has to be working as well. To have a truly seven-day NHS requires a lot more people and resources to be available than just junior doctors.

[Lord Lansley (Con)]

My Lords, my noble friend the Minister’s repetition of the Statement and what he was able to say additionally in response to noble Lords was very welcome. Does he agree that going back more than 20 years, to when the new deal for junior doctors was first brought in and we supported them on their concerns about Modernising Medical Careers, we on these Benches have never been lacking in support for junior doctors? We understand that when one is on the ward in a hospital at the weekend, very often the doctor who you see is a junior doctor. The point is that it is in the best interests of junior doctors and patients for seven-day working to be introduced, with proper rostering, rather than discriminating between Monday to Friday and the weekend as if they were different parts of what is in truth the same service. If we get it right, as my noble friend says, it should be possible to achieve such an agreement without bringing any detriment to junior doctors as a consequence, but rather by supporting them in the work that they have to do.

[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.