BMJ  2005;331:797 (8 October), doi:10.1136/bmj.331.7520.797-b

News

Independent centres threaten training

London

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Increased competition in the health service could put at risk the quality of training of the United Kingdom's 49 000 junior doctors, their leader has warned.

Jo Hilborne, the new chair-woman of the BMA's Junior Doctors Committee, expressed concern last week that private companies running treatment centres have no incentive to provide doctors with high quality training.

"It's not clear whether profit making companies running treatment centres will provide training to the same standards as the NHS," she said. "Unless a mechanism is introduced to make training as important to private companies as it is to the NHS, standards are likely to drop."

Changes to working patterns and reform of training have already put junior doctors under greater pressure, said Dr Hilborne. Private provision of certain services brings with it more uncertainties for the future of junior doctors.

"In an NHS based on competition, there will be winners and losers. . . . [Full text of this article]

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