Islington Tribune - by SIMON WROE Published: 27 April 2007
Doctors lobby Parliament
Human rights lawyer advises doctors in campaign to save jobs
A LEADING human rights lawyer from Clerkenwell is representing doctors who fear government changes to their training could leave thousands without jobs.
Solicitor Richard Stein, of legal firm Leigh Day and Co in St John’s Lane, is acting for RemedyUK, a doctors’ group formed amid mounting concern about the “catastrophic failure” of the Medical Training Application Service (MTAS).
Last month, RemedyUK organised a 12,000-strong march through the centre of London, and this week staged a mass lobby of Parliament. Now it intends to take the doctors’ case to the High Court.
MTAS, which is part of the government’s Modernising Medical Careers (MMC) programme, has been fiercely criticised by doctors nationwide for its “fatally flawed and bitterly unfair” selection process, which they say will lead to 10,000 doctors being unemployed on August 1.
Rosa Curling, who is assisting Mr Stein, said: “We think, with the implementation of MMC and MTAS, the government is acting unlawfully, and there is a good chance of our client’s success.”
She added: “There is no date set for the hearing yet, but we have proceedings which the court is currently considering.”
Mr Stein represented objectors to plans for a city academy on the site of St Mary Magdalene Primary School in Holloway last year.