Jeremy Hunt’s doctor training places won’t solve current NHS crisis

A doctor on a hospital ward. ‘Mr Hunt has ignored advice to increase recruitment to address our current issues, but has no trouble finding the money if it can be used to replace our hard-working overseas colleagues, without whom the NHS would have collapsed,’ writes Dr Bob Bury. Photograph: Peter Byrne/PA

Jeremy Hunt tells us he will boost the number of UK-trained medics by the simple expedient of increasing the number of training places (Hunt promises to end NHS reliance on overseas doctors, 4 October). We need more doctors right now to fill the many gaps in medical cover, a problem which will be exacerbated by his unworkable new contract for junior doctors. Mr Hunt has ignored advice to increase recruitment to address our current issues, but has no trouble finding the money if it can be used to replace our hard-working overseas colleagues, without whom the NHS would have collapsed.
Dr Bob Bury
Leeds

• Jeremy Hunt will also need to expand the number of junior doctor posts if the medical school expansion goes ahead, as all medical school graduates are guaranteed a foundation training post in order to register as a doctor. Perhaps this is his secret way of filling the gaps in rotas to achieve seven-day elective working. Of course if he had done more about retention, this wouldn’t have been needed.
Chris Jeffries
Stockport

• I applaud Jeremy Hunt’s announcement, but why has it taken him so long? What about our reliance on overseas nurses and cuts to the number of UK nurses in training? The logic is the same and so are the problems with language for some non-native speakers. The problem in ensuring a seven-day NHS is not the junior doctors, but the lack of consultants, A&E nurses and ancillary staff like radiographers and pharmacists at the weekend.
David Lang
Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire

• Of course we need more home-grown doctors and nurses. However, anyone embarking on training (probably with generous bursaries in most cases) should be required to agree to work following qualification in this country for a specific period before plying their trade aboard. They should also be prepared to go to areas of greatest need. Failure to fulfil this commitment should make them liable to the repayment of any public funds.
John Marriott
Lincoln

• I presume Jeremy Hunt has factored into his calculations the number of current doctors who are likely to be leaving the NHS in the next few years, due, in no small part, to the efforts of a home-grown health secretary.
Ian Grieve
Steyning, West Sussex

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