Junior doctors are integral to delivering effective, safe patient care and treatment in the NHS.
Any contract should pay junior doctors for hours worked, recognise anti-social hours and the effect this has on doctors’ lives, reward additional experience and not discriminate against doctors who take parental leave or train flexibly.
While we wait to see the detail of the new contract, in an NHS which already places increasingly complex clinical demands on all health professionals, safeguards need to be put in place to protect junior doctors from taking on the extra burden that these changes bring.
Only by valuing and properly investing in our junior doctors will we attract and keep a future workforce qualified and prepared to deliver the care that patients need and deserve.
11 February 2016
Dr Suzy Lishman, President
Dr Alice Wort, Chair, Trainees Advisory Committee
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