www.mddus.com GMC PLEDGES “LIGHT TOUCH”


TO ADDRESS DOCTORS’ UNEASE THE GMC has expressed concern at “unease” within the medical profession in its annual report The state of medical education and practice in the UK.


The regulator noted


growing pressure on doctors, a “dangerous level of alienation” felt by


doctors in training, and the impact which struggling


healthcare services are having on


doctors’ education and training. GMC Chair Professor Terence


Stephenson and the then Chief Executive


Niall Dickson said: “There is a state of unease within the medical profession across the UK that risks affecting patients as well as doctors. The reasons for this are complex and multifactorial, and some are longstanding. Yet the signals of distress are unmistakable. “There appears to be a general acceptance that the system cannot simply go


on as before.” The report says the GMC has a role to play in addressing this unease by making


regulation as “light touch as possible”, reassuring trainees that they are valued doctors and addressing the anger and frustration which has built up during the ongoing dispute in England between the BMA’s Junior Doctors’ Committee and the Government.


The GMC has recently launched a special review to explore how postgraduate


training can be made more flexible for doctors in the future. The regulator says it also wants to play more of a role supporting those engaged in workforce planning – to make sure doctors have the right knowledge, skills and standard of behaviour to serve patient needs in the years ahead.


“SOFT OPT OUT” ORGAN DONATION


CONSULTATION PLANS for a “soft opt out” system of organ donation – where consent is presumed unless the patient opted out – have been put out for consultation by the Scottish Government. The move is a bid to find ways of increasing the number


of organ and tissue donors. Among the proposals are plans for a soft opt out – or deemed authorisation – system. This would allow organ and/or tissue donation to proceed when a person dies in hospital unless they had opted out via the NHS Organ Donor Register or had told their family they did not wish to donate. The consultation also wants views on whether clinicians


in Scotland should be given guidance to encourage them to refer potential organ or tissue donors to specialist donor staff, so that the possibility of donation can be explored at an earlier opportunity. The NHS in Scotland has already seen a 29 per cent


increase in deceased donors in the eight months since April compared to the same period last year – rising from 60 to 85. As at December 4, 2016, there were 531 people in Scotland on the active transplant waiting list. The consultation is


open until March 14, 2017 on the Scottish Government website tinyurl.com/hqjpsqq


HEAVY WORKLOADS ERODE TRAINING


OVER 43 per cent of doctors in training have reported their workload as ‘heavy’ or ‘very heavy’, prompting concern at the GMC that training time is being eroded. These findings emerged from the 2016


national training survey in which the GMC canvassed opinions from around 55,000 doctors in training. While most continue to rate their training experience positively, there were areas of concern. Among those trainees reporting their


daytime workload as ‘very heavy’ or ‘heavy’, this was most marked in emergency


medicine (78 per cent), gastroenterology (63 per cent), respiratory medicine (61 per cent), general internal medicine (60 per cent) and acute internal medicine (59 per cent). All these percentages have increased over the last five years. The survey also revealed that over half of


doctors in training reported working beyond their rostered hours, and up to 25 per cent said their working patterns left them sleep-deprived on a weekly basis – another worsening trend in recent years. Doctors with excessive workloads said


they were more likely to have to leave teaching sessions to answer clinical calls and were forced to cope with clinical problems beyond their competence and often with inadequate handovers from colleagues. GMC Chief Executive Charlie Massey said:


“Those responsible and accountable for the delivery of medical education locally must take appropriate steps to ensure the training of doctors remains protected.” Dr Pete Campbell, BMA junior doctors’


committee chair, added: “Patients and the public may be shocked by these findings, but no junior doctor will be surprised. It is still far too common that junior doctors are left sleep deprived after regularly working beyond their rostered hours, on rotas that are desperately short of doctors. We cannot accept a situation where vital training time is being sacrificed in the face of rising pressures on services.”


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16