Jamie Reed – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jamie Reed on 2015-10-16.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment his Department has made of the effect on the morale of junior doctors of proposed changes to their employment contracts.

Ben Gummer

Staff morale including junior doctors is measured annually through the National Health Service Staff Survey using staff engagement scores.

A contract proposal has not yet been made in relation to junior doctors. My Rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State wrote to the Chair of the Junior Doctor’s Committee Dr Johann Malawana on 8 October providingfour cast iron guarantees on contract reform. He said that he was not seeking to make savings from the pay bill, he wished to have a contract that improves patient safety, that reduces not increases the number of hours junior doctors work each week and which ensures that in future the great majority of doctors will be at least as well paid as now. In particular, he referenced negotiations with the British Medical Association (BMA) consultants committee to make sure there is proper consultant cover at weekends so junior doctors are better supported. He also wanted Health Education England and the Royal Colleges to continue working with the BMA and NHS Employers to look at how the training experience can be improved more generally for juniors to better support work life balance including leave arrangements and recognising that juniors often have family responsibilities and choose to work part time. He asked the Junior Doctor’s Committee to re-enter negotiations and to work with others on the wider work on improving the training experience.