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Katie Bramall, centre, alongside her colleagues at last week’s protest in central London |
Why we must unite to protect the NHS
Katie Bramall argues that patient care and junior doctors’ careers are being put at risk by government plans for the NHS
MY name is Katie Bramall. I’m 27, a junior doctor and I live in Camden borough. I also trained here too, moving from pastoral Staffordshire when I was 18 to medical school at UCL in September 1997, nearly ten years ago. I was one of the doctors leading the march through central London last Saturday.
The Police estimate that on the day there were 12,000 of us. That equates to nearly 10 per cent of all doctors in the UK. This was absolutely unexpected and unprecedented – doctors by their very nature are an apolitical breed. Generally we’re more interested in delivering the NHS than running it. So you know something must have gone seriously – dangerously – wrong to see so many, so passionate and so vocal, walking along the Euston Road last weekend. It wasn’t just us: nurses, physiotherapists as well as families, parents, partners (even consultants!) walked alongside us.
But why? Was it about pay? No – it is about the government’s disastrous new national training programme. When we qualify as doctors that’s only the beginning. You remain a ‘junior doctor’ until you become a GP or hospital consultant, which takes many more years of practice, experience and exams.
So, how we train after we qualify has a significant impact on the quality of care that you will receive as a patient.
The government’s plan, Modernising Medical Careers (MMC) has been rushed through.
The BMA warned of an impending disaster back in 2004, and the Junior Doctors Committee of the BMA continuously campaigned for the case for delay. But the government didn’t listen.
Then our fears were realised: the national computer system crashed, repeatedly; applications went missing; deaneries made mistakes; bizarre selection methods actively discriminated against doctors with the most experience.
All this is not to mention what you, the taxpayer had already paid. It costs £250,000 to train a doctor. Most people agree that this is money well spent, but the government thinks training is too expensive and wants to churn out ‘consultants’ in only half the amount of time it now takes. Presumably the end product will be half as good, and when you’re dealing with people’s lives this is unacceptable.
In addition they want fewer consultants and so fewer jobs will be available. It’s possible 8,000 UK trained doctors will face unemployment, or continue training overseas. What a waste!
This is what we were marching for: better quality of training – better quality of patient care.
What do we want? An independent review into the failures of the system, not some Whitehall fudge.
If the government cannot come up with solutions that are fair, then it should scrap it and start again. It’s no good shortlisting people based on how good they are at ticking boxes – awarding extra points for ‘dealing with stress’ but only one point for a PhD.
Patients demand the best care, and they are entitled to it. We as doctors, need your support as patients, to stand united.
I am one of the lucky ones. I saw this looming on the horizon and decided that my future was in General Practice.
I will become a GP Registrar this Summer, and look forward to serving the healthcare needs of Camden’s residents as a GP for many years to come.
I have received a great education, bundles of experience at wonderful training hospitals such as the Whittington, Royal Free and UCH. That is what all these junior doctors deserve too.
Let us be the best we can. Write to your MP, support the BMA, speak up and speak out – this is the biggest chance to save our healthcare since the founding of the NHS in 1948.
Every one of us will be a patient one day, after all.
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