1st April 2011
‘Flawed’ Government Plans Could Compromise Patient Safety and the Medical Profession, Argues RCGP
The RCGP has criticised the Government's proposals to redesign medical training following the DH's Liberating the NHS consultation.
‘Flawed’ Government plans could compromise patient safety and the medical profession argues Medical Royal College
The Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) is warning that ‘unintelligible’ Government proposals to redesign the training received by the nation’s doctors mark an ‘unjustified revolution in medical education’ which could compromise patient safety.
The RCGP has told the Department of Health that it has ‘very serious concerns’ regarding the proposals to redesign medical training into a more ‘bottom-up’ system in a bid to reduce costs.
In its response to the DH consultation, Liberating the NHS: Developing the Healthcare Workforce, the RCGP urges the Government to reconsider ‘very carefully’ before implementing the proposed changes, saying: “The purpose of education and training is to provide a healthcare workforce that is competent and safe – safety that must be assured both during and after training.
“We support the principle of seeking to improve quality and efficiency, but believe that reform should be evidence-based, and tested by rigorous evaluation … many of the proposals in this paper do not meet these standards, are likely to result in negative consequences for the future healthcare workforce, particularly in primary care, and ultimately may lead to poorer outcomes for patients.”
The RCGP also criticises the lack of detail within the paper saying “many of our members, including senior experts in the field of medical education, have found aspects of this paper unintelligible and confusing” and warns the document carries ‘serious flaws’.
“Though we do not claim that current systems are perfect, our members strongly support the retention of deaneries, or equivalent regional bodies with strategic oversight, with the range of functions they currently fulfil, as a tried-and-tested approach to medical education, particularly for primary care”, it says.
The full RCGP response to the DH consultation Liberating the NHS: Developing the Healthcare Workforce can be found on the RCGP website