NHS crisis ‘damaging medical education’

The British Medical Association (BMA) has warned that the financial crisis of the NHS could have consequences for patient care as money is diverted from education and training to meet deficits.

Members of the association have drafted a letter to the health secretary, Patricia Hewitt, to restore funding for study leave, detailing the lower levels of patient care that could result from depleted training budgets.

The BMA states that this would make it “difficult” for junior doctors to complete mandatory courses in trauma care or life support.

Jo Hilborne, chairman of the junior doctors committee at the BMA, remarked: “Cutting education and training as a quick fix to the financial problems facing the NHS is both demoralising to staff and extremely risky.”

Professor Michael Rees, chairman of the BMA’s medical academic staff committee, added: “Medical schools are already very short of clinical teaching staff, and cutting these posts would worsen the situation.”

Recently, there has been dispute over the number of job cuts that could be caused by the NHS deficit.

The government has put the number at a few hundred, while opposition parties and unions warn the figure could be as high as 20,000.