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The use of Health Education England (HEE) to coerce unwilling Trusts and junior doctors to accept the new contract for doctors in training is another example of the lasting damage this dispute in doing to the fundamentals of the NHS. There will always be difficult balances to be struck between the educational needs of trainees and the needs of the service. It is correspondingly crucial that junior doctors and their trainers have confidence that HEE puts education at the heart of its decisions. Prof Cumming may have had little choice but to write as he did, but that confidence will now need a lot of rebuilding.
Yours sincerely
Dr Graham Winyard CBE FRCP FFPH
Former NHDS Medical Director and Postgraduate Dean
Re: Health Education England threatens to cut trusts’ funding for training if they don’t impose junior doctor contract
The use of Health Education England (HEE) to coerce unwilling Trusts and junior doctors to accept the new contract for doctors in training is another example of the lasting damage this dispute in doing to the fundamentals of the NHS. There will always be difficult balances to be struck between the educational needs of trainees and the needs of the service. It is correspondingly crucial that junior doctors and their trainers have confidence that HEE puts education at the heart of its decisions. Prof Cumming may have had little choice but to write as he did, but that confidence will now need a lot of rebuilding.
Yours sincerely
Dr Graham Winyard CBE FRCP FFPH
Former NHDS Medical Director and Postgraduate Dean
Competing interests: No competing interests