Norman Lamb addresses junior doctor's rally in London

4.33.28pm BST (GMT +0100) Tue 24th Apr 2007

Norman Lamb has today addressed a rally of junior doctors protesting in London about the shortfalls of the Modernising Medical Careers (MMC) programme for medical graduates.

Hundreds of people gathered opposite the Houses of Parliament to support the event, which was organised by campaign group Remedy UK in order to highlight the problems with MMC and the need for Government action to resolve the issue. Despite the fact it costs around £250,000 to train a doctor, the Government's new system of putting graduate doctors into jobs has resulted in thousands failing to secure a single interview and some even being offered interviews for posts they did not apply for.

Under pressure from the Liberal Democrats and others the Government launched a review of the new recruitment and selection process in early March. On 16th April the Health Secretary, Patricia Hewitt, announced a second, wider review to "clarify and strengthen the principles underlying MMC and to ensure that, where necessary, we make further changes for future years." However, the Norman Lamb has deemed the process to be "fatally flawed" and believes the current recruitment round should be suspended.

Speaking at the rally, Norman Lamb MP said:

"This is not some obscure workforce planning issue; doctors with rock bottom morale are not good news for patients.

"Patricia Hewitt's apology does not reverse the fact that the Government had plenty of prior warning of this utterly avoidable mess. Once a recruitment process is shown to be fatally flawed and unfair you cannot remedy it. If you are in a hole, stop digging.

Norman Lamb MP addresses junior doctors at the Remedy UK rally in Westminster

"The Government must also increase the number of training posts to avoid significant unemployment amongst hospital doctors this summer."