Leech Backs Junior Doctors

4.08.09pm GMT Mon 19th Mar 2007

Local medical talent could be going to waste because of Labour's reforms

Commenting as doctors from South Manchester joined a mass demonstration in London against the failings of the Government's new applications process for junior doctors, which will leave thousands of doctors jobless this summer , Liberal Democrat MP for Manchester Withington, John Leech said:

"Doctors have voiced their concerns about the Government's system since last summer but ministers refused to listen. I have received dozens of letters and e-mails from Doctors living in my constituency on the subject and I have pursued their concerns with the Secretary of State for Health several times. The reply has always been to reassure that there would be not be a crisis as a result of this latest NHS shake up. Yet thousands of junior doctors facing unemployment sounds like a crisis to me!"

The IT system devised to select doctors for job interviews has been seen as a failure, and 9 out of 10 doctors in a poll have called for those in charge of the new system to be sacked.

John Leech will be meeting with Junior Doctors from his constituency on Tuesday 20th March to discuss the chaos that the new system has created.

John Leech continued:

"This recruitment round must be suspended immediately in order to salvage any remaining confidence in the system. How can interviews continue when the selection process is clearly flawed?

"New IT provision is no substitute for basic common sense and sensible forethought. This Government seems seduced by the technology which is further evidence of their inability to deliver effective public services.

"I am horrified to learn that 6,000 doctors will end up jobless as a result of this incompetence. It is estimated to have cost the taxpayer over a billion pounds to train these doctors. This is a criminal waste of talent and the money spent on their training.

"Yet again, the Government has rammed through reform in the NHS without testing it or properly assessing the effects it would have."