As the government continues to push forward its NHS reform bill, doctors express their concern with possible strike action. The proposed ballot to strike is a direct result of doctors concerns over the possibility of more than 50 hospital units closing, as well as changes in pay and pensions. 

With more hospital units closing will inevitably see patient care suffering as doctor jobs and doctor recruitment is cutback due to closures and efficiency saving measures. 

The Chairman of the BMA’s Consultant Committee, Dr Mark Porter, said, “The brutal cuts being made to the NHS would lead to the rationing of treatment and hospitals becoming financially unviable as they are undermined by private competitors.”

He went on further to criticise the Government for meddling with the NHS and breaking their pre-election promise to protect the NHS and said, “Ministers stubborn refusal to listen to expert critics suggested they were motivated by ideology.” 

Dr Porter’s claims come on the back of the BMA conference which called for a motion of the health bill to be withdrawn, but agreed to continue with negotiations. Furthermore, the conference delegates took their first steps towards a ballot, which could effectively see industrial action over their pay and pensions. 

If the strike does go ahead, this would be the first time since 1975 that doctors have taken industrial action. The move to possibly strike is in the wake of growing opposition to the reforms that would see the abolition of two tiers of management, as well as allowing private firms to compete for patient care. 

On top of the government’s reform, the NHS is under pressure to save £20 billion over the next three years through efficiency saving measures, which is likely to see jobs go across the NHS including doctors, GPs, GP Locums, Locums, midwives and nurses. 

In his speech to the annual BMA consultants conference, Dr Porter said, “That the coalition had promised to give GPs and patients more power as well as ending top-down reorganisations of the health service.”

“They had then devised the single largest top-down NHS reorganisation ever, while the public justification for new laws may not look like a recognisable truth at all in years to come.” 

“That truth is that this bill aims to transform the NHS by making the development of a market in health care the most important priority in the NHS.”

“Local services are already being closed or rationed across the country and that patients should watch out if they need treatment.”

“It seems that on the most conservative commissioning assumptions about reducing low-priority services, 58 hospital trusts will be unable to cover the costs of entire service departments.”

“This is because of the effect if losing economies of scale, and of being left with unalterable fixed costs after removal of a proportion of variable revenue.”

“The toxic legacy of ‘private finance initiative’ deals to build new hospitals under Labour could mean the government having to bail out private firms who have profited from the schemes, but whose services will be undermined by the devastating introduction of competition from private healthcare providers.”

“This government’s stubborn and obdurate refusal to listen is starting to look as if the purpose in this bill is more the exercise of ideology and authority, than a desire to engage doctors in improving healthcare.”

Furthermore, Dr Porter went on to describe, “a pay freeze and the removal of performance bonuses for hospital consultants as special punishment and proof that the medical profession is treated with disdain by politicians who enjoy far more generous public sector pensions.”

After Dr Porter spoke at the BMA consultants’ conference, consultants voted in favour of motions for the BMA to explore proposals “including industrial action” in response to attacks on doctors’ pay rises, pensions and clinical excellence awards. However, the BMA Council would have to agree any decision before a ballot could be taken. 

The last time industrial action was taken was back in 1975, when junior doctors worked to rule over a dispute in working hours. Since then any threat of strike by doctors has seen ministers making concessions to prevent any industrial action taken by doctors. 

A Department of Health spokesman, said, “If we want to preserve the NHS for future generations, we must act now.”

“We have protected the NHS and are ploughing in an extra £10.7 billion of funding. But the NHS must modernise in order to keep up with the increasing demand on services, an ageing population and rising costs of new drugs and treatments.”

“The only way we can deliver productivity gains is by increasing clinical involvement. In addition, requiring all hospitals to become Foundation Trusts will help them become stronger and more productive.”

“Our plans to modernise the NHS will release £1.7 billion savings every year, helping the NHS meet its efficiency target. They will also help put the NHS on a sustainable financial footing through reduced bureaucracy and much stronger incentives for quality and efficiency.”

With doctors taking possible strike action over the government’s reform of the NHS, the uncertainty of future doctor jobs is still a key concern for the medical profession, as well as providing quality patient care. At MPP Locums, we continue to work in partnership with NHS Trusts and private health care providers across the UK to provide locum doctor jobs and doctor jobs at all levels. 

Contact our registration team today if you want to be part of our growing medical specialist team.

A recent census carried out by the NHS Information Centre has revealed that over the last decade the number of staff employed by the NHS has increased to an all time high of 1.4 million by the end of September 2010. 

The survey shows that the number of staff employed by the NHS had grown in every category with a 25% increase in the number of GPs, an increase of more than 50% for consultants and the number of qualified nurses has increased by 20%.  

The most dramatic rise was in the number of new managers employed by the NHS with an increase of 66% to 41,962 managers. 

However, the NHS census also revealed that the numbers employed by the NHS is beginning to decrease as NHS reforms and cutbacks take hold. In the last year alone, the NHS has seen the number of managers fall by 2,770 since September 2010.  

Furthermore, figures released in December 2010 show that the downward trend in the number of staff working for the NHS is continuing, especially in management roles with a further 1,143 managers loosing their jobs.  

Critics of the NHS reforms and cutbacks are concerned that further jobs could go as further budgetary constraints are put into place. With the NHS cutting back on permanent staff the need for GP Locums, GP jobs and agency doctor jobs is likely to increase as the NHS commits to delivering a first class service and ensuring patient care isn’t affected.  

The figures also highlight that although managers are at the forefront of current job losses, there has also been a small decline in the number of nurses, practice and temporary staff working for the NHS – down 0.9% in the year to September 2010.  

The Health Minister, Simon Burns, said, “The NHS was reducing bureaucracy and management costs.” 

“The latest census shows that the NHS has taken up the challenge to reduce management costs whilst the number of doctors and nurses has increased.” 

“Reducing bureaucracy is vital to modernising the NHS so that every penny saved can be reinvested into improving patient care and driving up quality.” 

“We have always been clear that efficiency savings must not impact adversely on patient care. Instead of the size and shape of the workforce needs to change so that we have less bureaucrats and the right levels of clinical staff so that care can be brought closer to home for patients.

” But the Shadow Health Secretary, John Healey, said, “The NHS in England now faced an uncertain future after years of investment.” 

“This will come to be seen as a high-point for the health service, at a time when many frontline staff are facing an uncertain future and despite David Cameron’s promise to protect the NHS.” 

“The findings also give lie to the claim that Labour was all about increasing and protecting management posts. The number of NHS managers has been falling since before the election, while our investment in the health service over the previous decade saw over 150,000 extra clinical staff.

” Cathy Warwick, general secretary of the Royal College of Midwives, welcomed the increase in midwife numbers but said, “An extra 4,000 posts are needed to cope with increased demand in England.” 

“What we are seeing is the tail-end of the previous government’s policies to increase the number of midwives. My fear is that this may be a peak in the numbers before the inevitable slide downwards as the financial pressures on the NHS start to bite.” 

“It is also clear when you look at the figures that the major part of the increase is driven by rising numbers in London. Other areas of the country are seeing tiny increases or even a fall.” 

“The RCN still believes that thousands more midwives are needed to cope with the historically high birth-rate and the increasing complexity of births; all of which is putting pressure on maternity services and demanding more of midwives’ time.”  

As the NHS hits an all time high of 1.4 million employees, the number of staff employed is set to decline as budgetary constraints take hold, in particular the number of managers has seen the fastest fall with their numbers being reduced across the UK.  

As NHS Trusts across the UK reduce the number of employees across all disciplines, the demands for locum doctors, GP locums is likely to increase where demands exceed supply. At MPP Locums, we continue to work with our partners to provide first class medical personnel across the UK.  

As one of the largest and fastest growing specialist recruitment agencies in the UK, MPP Locums provides first class medical professionals to both the NHS and private health care providers.  

MPP Locums is an approved supplier of locum doctor jobs, doctor jobs to the NHS under the National Locum Framework. 

Contact our registration team today if you want to be part of our growing medical specialist team. 

As the coalition government pushes forward with the biggest shake-up of the NHS since its inception, BMA branches express their dismay in what they see will lead to the NHS being dismantled. 

Members of the BMA are so concerned about the government’s reform plans that they are seeking a vote of no confidence for health secretary Andrew Lansley. 

The British Medical Association is preparing to debate a series of motions at an emergency meeting next week on the proposed NHS shake-up. 

The BMA’s largest regional council – London is to submit one motion for definite discussion – to seek a vote of no confidence in Lansley. Another, from doctors in Buckinghamshire, says, “such a move is appropriate because Lansley has reneged on a pre-election promise not to reorganise the NHS, demonstrated his desire to destroy the public’s trust in their GPs and pursued policies despite a lack of evidence that they will improve either patient care or the NHS’ pressurised finances.”

Another motion, from Birmingham medics, even proposes that next week’s BMA special representative meeting (SRM) “would not buy a used car off someone who had trumpeted no ‘top-down’ reorganisation of the NHS prior to being elected and then proceeds to introduce a massive and clearly long-planned reorganisation of the NHS after being elected.”

Doctors are also accusing Lansley of deliberately distorting the NHS’ record as a ploy to justify restructuring the service in England. 

Strongly worded motions criticise “the government’s use of misleading and inaccurate information to denigrate the NHS and the cynical and misleading use of statistics by Andrew Lansley and colleagues to denigrate the achievements of the NHS over recent years.”

Motions from other BMA branches claim, “this wilful misrepresentation of the achievements of the NHS shows contempt for both the public and for health professionals and accuse Lansley of ignoring recent successes, such as record patient satisfaction levels and fewer deaths from heart attacks and cancer.”

At the SRM – the BMA’s first since 1992 – doctors will also urge the BMA to reject the whole of the health and social care bill, and drop its current policy of “critical engagement” with Lansley. One motion calls on the BMA “to oppose the bill in its entirety, publicise and oppose the damaging elements of the bill and consider what form of action should be taken by the medical profession.”

Another motion calls for a referendum to test support for the government’s plans, which it says should be withdrawn unless there is clear public support, which so far opinion polls suggest does not exist. 

Dr Kevin O’Kane, chairman of the BMA’s London region, which represents 34,000 doctors, said, “There’s an enormous groundswell of opinion among doctors from all around the country that they lack confidence on the secretary of state for health.”

“The SRM is not a kneejerk response to the government’s proposed legislation. The BMA has until now attempted to have a dialogue with the health secretary since he released his NHS reform white paper last summer. But unfortunately Andrew Lansley has totally ignored our concerns and has behaved in a high-handed fashion with the concerns of the BMA, other health unions, the medical royal colleges, patients’ groups and health think-tanks.”

“Mr Lansley seems determined to plough his very lonely furrow, which will inevitably lead to the breakup of our NHS. Under the circumstances I will be very surprised if we find many doctors who have confidence in his proposals or his manner of pursuing them. Doctors are disappointed and frustrated at being sidelined by the government, and deeply concerned for the future of the NHS.”

A Department of Health spokesman said, “We are absolutely committed to the future of the NHS. We hope to continue to work closely with the BMA and all other health professionals to cut bureaucracy and give doctors the power and freedom to make the service more responsive to patients needs.”

Furthermore, Department of Health sources cited, “more than 5,000 GP practices across England that have agreed to join ‘pathfinder’ consortiums of GPs, who will take control of £80bn in annual spending on treatments from April 2013, as evidence that many are already planning how to use the new arrangements to improve patient care.”

With many GPs across the UK rejecting and voting for a vote of no confidence for the health secretary Andrew Lansley, the future of the NHS reform bill is far from being 100% certain. As NHS Trust across the UK look at ways to reduce spending and maintaining patient care, the demands put on GPs and GP Locums will continue. At MPP Locums we continue to work with our partners to provide first class medical personnel where the demands are needed.

MPP Locums is an approved supplier of locum doctor jobs to the NHS under the National Locum contract starting 1st July for the next three years and we are regulated by the care Quality Commission and The NHS Purchasing and Supply Agency (PASA).

As one of the largest and fastest growing specialist recruitment agencies in the UK, MPP Locums provides first class medical professionals to both the NHS and private health care providers. 

Contact our registration team today if you want to be part of our growing medical specialist team.

New figures released show that the current cutbacks will affect services and put patients at risk as one in four NHS Trusts cut spending on out-of-hours care. 

To date, at least 20 trusts have reduced their budgets for doctors visiting patients in out-of-surgery hours by a total of £4 million. 

As NHS Trusts cut after-hours budgets – concerns are being voiced to ensure a repeat of the incompetent German locum Daniel Ubani who killed a Cambridgeshire man with a morphine overdose in 2008 doesn’t happen again. 

Obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, around 78 of England’s 152 primary care trusts released information on their out-of-hours spending. Out of the trusts that supplied information, twenty said they had cut their budgets. 

Furthermore, the cuts made to out-of-hours care were made in the trusts’ 2010-11 budgets, before the government’s NHS spending review, which will see the NHS making efficiency savings of £20 billion over the next four years. 

Across the remaining trusts that released information, total spending on out-of-hours care rose by £3.6 million. 

Health experts, said, “some trusts might have been able to make savings without affecting services, by renegotiating inflated contracts.”

However, doctors and patients’ groups, said, “That in many cased lower spending would add to concern about the quality of care.”

Last year the Department of Health commissioned a study into the quality of care provided by out-of-hours contractors, including GP groups and private health care firms and the findings highlight a wide variation in the services provided to patients. 

Katherine Murphy, the chief executive of Patients’ Association, said, “The latest cuts would reduce the quality of care, risking a repeat of the case of Dr Ubani.”

“By pressuring providers to look for ever cheaper options, the government is forcing them to enter a race to the bottom.”

“Out-of-hours services need to be staffed by doctors who are trained and experienced as their colleagues who work during the day. Cutting funds to pay for them will mean fewer and possible less able doctors.”

Dr Fay Wilson, who chairs an out-of-hours group in Birmingham, said, “Cutting out-of-hours care was a ‘false economy’ for trusts because more patients would be forced to seek care from accident and emergency wards.”

“If you are going to reduce the cost, then you will be reducing the number of clinicians you have on. That leaves gaps. You also don’t get the same level of supervision and support.”

Richard Vautrey, of the British Medical Association, said, “Cutting costs could harm services. There is a concern that you can pare a service down to such a level and reduce funding to such a level that you put patient safety issues at a higher risk.”

A Department of Health spokesman, said, “The Coalition was improving out-of-hours care. This is not about cutting costs – we are investing an extra £10.7billion in the NHS – it’s about ensuring GPs, not bureaucrats, are responsible for securing safe and appropriate out-of-hours care.”

The BMA also published a poll, which it said showed that most GPs opposed the Government’s plans to give them control over £80 billion of NHS budgets. 

The BMA poll highlighted that about 65% of family doctors believe competition between providers, including NHS and private companies, will reduce the quality of patient care, while 61% said, “the Government’s reforms mean they will spend less time with patients.”

The Department of Health, said, “The survey showed some doctors had ‘misconceptions’ of the planned reforms.”

Health Secretary, Andrew Lansley, said, “There was no alternative to his reforms to make the health service more efficient.”

“Unless we modernise, every year the relative costs of running the NHS will go up. Demand will grow, the bureaucracy will expand and inefficiencies will become entrenched.”

“There is no easy option. Sticking with the status quo and hoping that a bit more money will be enough to meet the challenges ahead is complete fiction.”

John Healey, Labours health spokesman, said, “The Government’s wasteful and reckless reorganisation of the NHS is piling pressure and uncertainty on health managers.”

“With many seeking short-term savings rather than making long term improvements, this will damage patient care.”

“So much for David Cameron’s pledge to protect the NHS – the reality is that it’s his biggest broken promise to date.”

With NHS Trusts looking to reduce spending, as well as the NHS reform bill being pushed through, the main concern from clinicians is patient care will suffer, particularly out-of-hours care. As the demand for GPs and GP Locums is unlikely to decrease, the need to allocate resources efficiently will rise. 

As one of the largest and fastest growing specialist recruitment agencies in the UK, MPP Locums provides first class medical professionals to both the NHS and private health care providers. 

MPP Locums is an approved supplier of locum doctors to the NHS under the National Locum contract.

Contact our registration team today if you want to be part of our growing medical specialist team.

MPP Locums Now Sole Locum Provider to Derby Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust


MPP Locums are pleased to announce we have been awarded Sole Locum Agency for the provision of long term and short term locum doctors to the Derby Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.


If you are a locum doctor looking for work in this region MPP Locums can offer locums:

• Sole Agency for locum placements

• Extremely competitive pay rates

• Weekly Pay on submitting timesheets

• £1000 Bonus when 100% compliant and complete 250 hours of work

• Entry into draw for Fiat 500 Car

• Support with Appraisal and Performance Reviews

• Access to Mandatory Training and Occupational Health

• Long term locum placements

• Short term locum placements

 
MPP Locums are proud to be working in partnership with Derby Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and are committed to implementing this contract where after the initial implementation period all locums placement will be made through MPP Locums.


MPP Locums are confident that we can deliver quality doctors along with assisting Derby Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust in reducing cost by delivering excellent value for money.


Doctors can register on line at www.mpplocums.co.uk  or call us on 0845 122 0414.

In a recent interview, the Chief Executive of the NHS in England, Sir David Nicholson, said, “Some hospitals will find impending NHS reforms ‘difficult’ and could have to merge to survive.”

“The combination of almost no increase in the NHS budget over the next four years – only 0.1 per cent above inflation and the reforms meant that they would have to adapt to remain competitive.”

“However, the expectation was that no hospitals in England would completely close. Most hospitals will be able to survive and thrive in the new world. But undoubtedly there will be those that will find it difficult.”

“The thing about the hospital service is that it has grown enormously over the last 10 years in particular and we are going into a period where growth in the NHS is what they describe as flat real.”

“Managers of many hospitals have become used to budgets rising year after year, and they have adapted themselves accordingly and they now need to change how they worked.”

“These hospitals whose business model is based on increasing capacity have got to seriously look at the way the operate.”

“That is why some hospitals are looking towards taking over community services,” he said.

Sir David Nicholson hinted that there could be further job losses in the future, saying, “That some hospital trusts could have to merge with others. This would lead to the reduction of some services.”

“Some would also end up being run by private companies.” Last November, one such hospital had done exactly that – with a private firm chosen to run Hinchingbrooke hospital in Huntingdon, which has debts approaching £40 million. 

With private firms taking over previously run NHS Hospitals such as Hinchingbrooke Hospital, the demand for locum doctors, specialist registrar jobs, SHO jobs doctors will shift from the NHS to private healthcare providers. 

Sir David went on further to add, “It was too early to say how frequently these approached would be needed.”

Andrew George, a Liberal Democrat MP who sits on the Health Committee, said, “The comments indicated the coalition’s health plans were potentially catastrophic.”

“The Government can either seek the most ambitious efficiency gain in its 62 year history and greater than any health system worldwide or it can push ahead with monumental reorganisation.”

“Sir David’s remarks are a further indication that to attempt both at once is a high risk and potentially catastrophic mix.”

Paul Flynn, from the British Medical Association’s consultants committee, said, “It is going to get harder especially when you consider the private sector is going to get more involved. There is a real risk.” 

With the likelihood of more hospitals merging, the underline concern amongst doctors and healthcare professionals is that more jobs will go within the NHS. As the number of doctors employed directly by the NHS decrease, the demand for doctors and locum doctors is likely to increase as hospitals strive to maintain and deliver first class patient care. 

MPP Locums is one of the largest and fastest growing specialist medical recruitment agencies in the UK. We are an approved supplier of locum doctors to the NHS under the National Locum Framework Agreement. We are also regulated by the care Quality Commission.

Contact our registration team today if you want to be part of our growing medical specialist team.