Author: admin

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dr Poulter on 2015-10-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, which meetings on the proposed new junior doctor and consultant contracts organised by his Department or NHS employers were attended by representatives from Health Education England.

Ben Gummer

Health Education England (HEE) was not formally represented in negotiations: the two parties to the negotiations were employers (from each of the four United Kingdom countries) and the British Medical Association.

A Director of Postgraduate Hospital Training and a Director of Postgraduate GP Education were involved in negotiations, and remain involved with the development of a new contract. Whilst they are employees of HEE, their role has been to provide educational advice to the management side (employers) as representatives of the Conference of Postgraduate Medical Deans (UK) and the Committee of General Practice Education Directors (UK). They have attended a range of meetings in that capacity, including the management side meetings and the negotiating meetings that took place roughly every fortnight from October 2013 to October 2014.

Representatives from HEE also attended other meetings where there were updates on contract reform, including NHS Employers’ quarterly Medical Workforce Forum; and other less formal meetings at which contract reform was discussed, including regular update meetings with the hon. Member, the then Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in the Department.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dr Poulter on 2015-10-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether under the new junior doctor contract proposals, doctors will be prevented from receiving remuneration or other financial support for teaching advanced life support and other medical training courses.

Ben Gummer

The principle underpinning the relevant proposals is that junior doctors should not be paid twice for the same time. Junior doctors will be paid by their National Health Service employer for the contractual duties set out in their work schedules. They will be entitled to carry out fee-paying work in periods for which they are not being paid by the NHS employer and to receive payment for that, additional to the payment for their NHS employment. If a fee is paid directly to a junior doctor for work done during time when they are being paid by their NHS employer, the junior doctor will be required to remit the fee to the employing organisation.

These proposals are – as in other respects – substantively the same as those agreed when the hon. Member was a Minister. As then, it is precisely to look at how these proposals would work that we wish to continue negotiations with the British Medical Association.