New deal issues at Pinderfields

Abstract

The conflicting pressures created by Achieving a Balance, the new deal on junior doctors’ hours, and the Calman report on specialist training all impinge on the quality of life that consultants can expect in the future, but the immediate impact is on junior hospital doctors. Concern has recently been expressed about the difficulties of introducing 72 hour limits by December 1994. In addition to these direct changes the impact of the internal market and the purchaser and provider divide could lead to large numbers of dissatisfied and demoralised junior doctors. Indeed, a recent survey suggests that up to half of doctors have considered leaving medicine. Perhaps the most frustrating part of a junior doctor's life is the belief that you have no control over events which shape hospital life and even your future career prospects. But my recent experience as a higher surgical trainee at Pinderfields Hospitals NHS Trust in Wakefield, Yorkshire, has prompted me to write this account. Within a short time of arriving it was apparent that there were considerable problems with accommodation, catering, postgraduate teaching, and hours of work. Indeed, the regional task force had described conditions as among the worst in Yorkshire. …