The junior doctors contract row could add to the staffing crisis at our hospitals, an MP has warned.
Junior doctors are currently being balloted for strike action amid government demands to shake-up their working hours and pay.
Health secretary Jeremy Hunt has said contracts must be renegotiated to enable a seven-day NHS and claimed no doctors’ pay will be reduced.
But doctors union the British Medical Association (BMA) says the deal does not protect against unsafe levels of hours or reward those who work night shifts or Saturdays.
Doctors from Huddersfield and Calderdale joined a huge protest rally against Mr Hunt’s proposals in Leeds last week.
Halifax MP, Holly Lynch, has predicted the new contracts will discriminate against women doctors and affect the careers of others.
And she says it will cause further staff shortages as doctors abandon the NHS to work overseas or as locums.
The Examiner reported on Tuesday that staff shortages at Calderdale and Huddersfield hospitals are set to leave bosses with a £17m bill for agency staff this year.
“This (dispute) comes at a time when NHS morale is already at a low ebb after five years of privatisation and under investment,” said Mrs Lynch on her official blog.
“The handling of the junior doctor contract dispute has caused unnecessary anger, and is now a real threat to the recruitment and retention of NHS staff.
“The current system is not perfect, but removing it, as the government has proposed, without putting in place clear safeguards risks leaving trusts free to exploit junior doctors, taking us back to the bad old days of the 1990s.
“In addition there would be pay cuts for many junior doctors.”
The government wants to change pay progression to reflect responsibility, rather than time-served.
Mrs Lynch said the change would hit women who take maternity leave and doctors who work part-time, such as those who are carers.
It could also affect doctors who take a career break to carry out academic research or who want to retrain in another speciality.
An extension of “normal” working hours to include up to 10pm and Saturdays will also reduce unsocial hours payments for many doctors.
“These changes are likely to have a detrimental effect on Calderdale Royal Hospital,” said Mrs Lynch.
“Our hospital has drawn up a plan to temporarily close an A&E department in the event of staffing shortages.
“The trust insists that this is not due to their current financial difficulties but is rather due to a shortage of doctors.
“Faced with national doctor shortages the government would be expected to be working with doctors to ensure that more are being trained and fewer are leaving the profession.
“Yet the current contract dispute is having exactly the opposite effect.”
