Modernising Medical Careers
Opposition Day — [9th Allotted Day]
4:58 pm
Evan Harris (Science, Cross-Portfolio and Non-Portfolio Responsibilities; Oxford West and Abingdon, Liberal Democrat)
Does the Minister accept that the key to the mismatch between the number of juniors looking for training posts and the number of training posts available is the question of consultant expansion? It begins and ends with that, because what patients want—we must remember patients—is a consultant-provided service. The Minister must explain whether medical schools were expanded in order to fill an expanded consultant grade, or whether they were expanded in order to fill trust grades, clinical fellowships and staff grades—all non-training posts, which many people do not want to occupy even though they are in such posts? Does he expect that the consultant expansion we need will take place? In 1997, a British Medical Journal editorial noted that "consultant expansion was insufficient". That editorial was written by a Dr. Evan Harris, but 10 years on, I see that there is still no expansion—