Foyle MP Mark Durkan
SDLP Foyle MP Mark Durkan has written to the Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt today to express the deep ‘consternation and frustration’ felt by junior doctors in Derry and throughout the North.
The junior doctors are angry at proposed contract changes which could create unsustainable pressure and put patients at risk.
Mr Durkan said: “I have been contacted by a large number of constituents regarding junior doctor contracts.
“Their frustrations are not limited to working hours and rates of pay but also include patient safety and the consequent care that their patients will receive as a result of the implementation of these contracts.
“The consternation and frustration I have heard from junior doctors is deeply felt and such demoralisation could be far-reaching for the character and shape of future services.
“My own concerns about the changes also extend to medical students being dissuaded from pursuing certain career paths within medicine which will in turn add further pressure to staff recruitment.
“It is not just the BMA and locally based doctors who express concern to me about current pressures, evident workforce syndromes and the worrying direction of travel.
“Local Health Service managers highlight a number of recruitment and retention challenges in key services which could be strategically compounded by the outworkings of this wider policy push.
“As well as registering my concerns with Jeremy Hunt, I am also writing to the Permanent Secretary at the Department of Health in Belfast seeking an update on the potential roll out of contract adjustments here.
“It is to be hoped that the valid concerns of my constituents, reinforced by the BMA, are given due consideration in our devolved arrangements.
“However, notwithstanding the formality of devolution, Jeremy Hunt’s decisions will have predictive policy implications which will condition and compound strategic options here.
“I am therefore encouraging him to engage with the BMA and other representatives of the medical profession in the hope of reaching a much more satisfactory outcome whereby junior doctors are not placed under unsustainable pressure and patients are not put at any further risk.”
