Specialist Calls For Government Action On Issue

The NHS has been urged by a medical negligence expert at Irwin Mitchell to react to concerns that the intake of medical trainees in August has an adverse impact on the patient safety in hospitals.

A study by the Society of Acute Medicine and the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh has revealed that a huge majority of doctors feel that the changeover impacts on both the care and safety of their patients.

More than half of those questioned also felt the intake had an impact on the training of doctors, with the authors of the report calling for both the UK and Scottish governments to consider a fresh approach to the issue.

Commenting on the research, Lisa Jordan, a Partner and medical negligence specialist at Irwin Mitchell, said: “Many of the cases we deal with are related to instances when patient safety has been compromised and avoidable errors have been made in treatment, often leaving victims with serious injuries they never fully recover from.

“We have repeatedly called for improvements in safety standards across the NHS, as well as changes in processes which will do more to prevent people from being hurt as a result of someone’s negligence.

“This report suggests there is a clear need to reassess the medical trainees intake system and introduce a new strategy which allows doctors to continue to provide the best possible care while helping upcoming professionals to integrate into the health service.

“We hope that the government uses this study as a starting point to improve standards and ensure that the safety of patients remains the highest priority for all medical experts in the future.”