Roger Godsiff – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Roger Godsiff on 2016-05-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the effect of the changes to junior doctors’ contracts and NHS working patterns on hospices and other institutions providing end of life care.

Ben Gummer

Most junior doctors working in hospices do so as either a volunteer or as part of their training placement with a National Health Service trust or foundation trust, who under the new contract will appoint a guardian of safe working hours.

It was also agreed in the May negotiations that non-hospital employers with fewer than 10 trainees (this could include palliative care) must contract the guardian of safe working hours at a neighbouring NHS trust to oversee the safe working of trainees.

The trainees affected by these arrangements will be represented in the Junior Doctor Forum and the Guardian must either be familiar with the issues face by the trainees working in the relevant setting or have access to support and advice on such issues.

Hospices will decide locally how to deploy trainee doctors and on-call arrangements.