HEE statement

Professor Ian Cumming, Chief Executive, Health Education England

The letter sent to Trust Chief Executives from HEE set out our belief that a robust, high-quality education and training system which has 50,000 doctors working in 70 specialties for over 350 different employers rotating through different specialties and employers on a regular basis requires a single, basic set of terms and conditions that apply across all employers. The BMA and NHS Employers agree with this which is why they support national bargaining for doctors.

Introducing competition based on salary, rest periods, working hours, rotas and any number of other criteria into an already complex system would be worse for the NHS, worse for patients and worse for doctors in training, making the whole education and training system for doctors, which the NHS leads the world in, almost impossible to deliver.

We, as a national arm’s length body of the DH, of course ensured we discussed this issue with colleagues in the DH and other arm’s length bodies before writing to all NHS Trusts. This is common courtesy.