Skip to content
Login Register

Royal Colleges welcome Scottish First Minister’s intervention in junior doctors contract

26 Apr 2016

Three Royal Colleges have written to the First Minister of Scotland to express their concerns with the dispute around the junior doctors’ contract in England and the ongoing and damaging uncertainty it is having on the NHS across the UK.

Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, and the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow – who represent members across the UK – have written to the First Minister of Scotland to express their concerns with the dispute around the junior doctors’ contract in England and the ongoing and damaging uncertainty it is having on the NHS across the UK.

The First Minister has written today to the Prime Minister to ask him to lift the imposition of the junior doctors’ contract in England and enable negotiations to resume.

In a joint statement, Prof Derek Bell, President of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, Prof David Galloway, President of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow , and Mr Michael Lavelle- Jones, President of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, said:

"We are already seeing the detrimental impact the threat of an imposed contract is having on the NHS and we are extremely concerned about the impact on patients now, as the all-out strike action by understandably aggrieved trainees takes place, and on the future delivery of safe patient care.

"Our priority is high-quality patient care, achieved through the highest standards of education, training and assessment and the retention of a world-class medical workforce.

"The imposition of the contract in England risks jeopardising our shared ambition for the future of the NHS by undervaluing and demotivating a group of doctors already under significant pressure.

"We very much welcome the commitment from the Scottish Government not to impose the junior contract in Scotland and welcome the First Minister’s letter to the Prime Minister to ask him to remove the threat of imposition and return to negotiations. We believe that imposition in England will have far-reaching and unintended consequences for healthcare across all nations in the UK for the foreseeable future."

Back to all news


Share this story:

Latest news and statements

Key priority areas

Workforce Recovery and Transformation
Health services in many parts of the world are over-stretched due to workforce shortages, rising demand for services and difficulties in retaining staff.
Read more
Wellbeing
A healthy healthcare workforce is essential for patient care. When the workforce is exhausted, experiencing burnout, and struggling to balance their work and personal lives, it impacts on everyone.
Read more
Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
We are committed to standing up for equality, diversity and inclusion. We want our College to reflect the diversity in the NHS workforce and in the patients that we care for.
Read more
Climate Change and Sustainability
Climate change has caused great harm to our planet and warnings of increasingly extreme heatwaves, droughts and flooding will all place a significant burden on our health outcomes.
Read more
Health Inequalities
The health inequalities in our society have been both highlighted and exacerbated by the covid pandemic. There is a need to do things differently.
Read more
COVID-19
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a huge impact on the lives of healthcare professionals, and the urgent need to learn whilemfocusing on delivering the best care for our patients has been an enormous challenge.
Read more

Topics


Archive


Key links



Contact us

rcpsg@grayling.com
07714307976

Log in

Log in to access your Dashboard, book events, pay your subscriptions and access eLearning material.

Log in

Register an account

New users must register before logging in. You do not need to be a member of the College in order to register.

Register

Help

Having difficulty registering or logging in? Forgotten your username or password?

Get Help