Health figures 'don't add up'
Wednesday, April 04, 2012
LLANELLI hospital campaigners have used official new figures to savage health board claims that recruitment problems back the case for a major shake-up in services.
Difficulties in attracting medical staff to Hywel Dda have been used as one of the board's key reasons behind proposals for service changes — which could see Prince Philip Hospital lose its A&E department.
But a report commissioned by the Department of Health has revealed the number of young doctors
set to qualify as top-level consultants in England could rise by 60 per cent — leading to a projected oversupply of 20,000 by 2020.
With the potential for thousands of doctors to be forced to take jobs overseas as a result, campaigners argue Hywel Dda can no longer use this argument to support service changes.
The health board, along with the Welsh Deanery, maintain there is a great difficulty in attracting and retaining doctors in Wales.
But retired consultant surgeon Hugh Evans said: "This is something I have been saying for the past year — there is not a shortage of doctors.
"You only have to look at the number of students going into medical schools each year. They are all going to graduate, and every year you are going to get thousands of doctors. It is blindingly obvious.
"These people are using this as an argument, but they have to be challenged."
Speaking about difficulties in recruitment previously, a Hywel Dda spokeswoman said the board had had to advertise some medical vacancies several times due to a failure to attract the right calibre of candidates, adding that extensive recruitment campaigns had been carried out not only in the UK, but in Europe and other countries.
But Mr Evans said staff would not be attracted to the board if services were likely to be taken away.
"Nobody is going to go to a place where they won't get experience," he said. "It is nothing to do with Hywel Dda being a rural area — it is to do with the services that have been removed.
"They need to make the jobs sound good. They can't write a couple of lines about a vacancy, they need to make big articles about the jobs — full pages singing the praises of the area, the sporting facilities etc.
"But first and foremost we need to put the services back in so people can experience what they need to get on in their profession."
A health board spokeswoman said Hywel Dda was particularly affected by "very real" national recruitment issues. "For example, we are currently trying to recruit into 37 per cent of our junior doctor posts and 34 per cent of our consultant posts," she said.
"Due to the lack of specialist opportunities in Hywel Dda, we will continue to struggle to attract and retain senior medical staff.
"We need to make the most of being a major healthcare provider and support our medical staff in developing more specialist services to make Hywel Dda Health Board attractive to doctors.
"This report predicting a potential surplus in eight years does not help our current predicament."
Difficulties in attracting medical staff to Hywel Dda have been used as one of the board's key reasons behind proposals for service changes — which could see Prince Philip Hospital lose its A&E department.
But a report commissioned by the Department of Health has revealed the number of young doctors
set to qualify as top-level consultants in England could rise by 60 per cent — leading to a projected oversupply of 20,000 by 2020.With the potential for thousands of doctors to be forced to take jobs overseas as a result, campaigners argue Hywel Dda can no longer use this argument to support service changes.
The health board, along with the Welsh Deanery, maintain there is a great difficulty in attracting and retaining doctors in Wales.
But retired consultant surgeon
Hugh Evans said: "This is something I have been saying for the past year — there is not a shortage of doctors."You only have to look at the number of students going into medical schools each year. They are all going to graduate, and every year you are going to get thousands of doctors. It is blindingly obvious.
"These people are using this as an argument, but they have to be challenged."
Speaking about difficulties in recruitment previously, a Hywel Dda spokeswoman said the board had had to advertise some medical vacancies several times due to a failure to attract the right calibre of candidates, adding that extensive recruitment campaigns had been carried out not only in the UK, but in Europe and other countries.
But Mr Evans said staff would not be attracted to the board if services were likely to be taken away.
"Nobody is going to go to a place where they won't get experience," he said. "It is nothing to do with Hywel Dda being a rural area — it is to do with the services that have been removed.
"They need to make the jobs sound good. They can't write a couple of lines about a vacancy, they need to make big articles about the jobs — full pages singing the praises of the area, the sporting
facilities etc."But first and foremost we need to put the services back in so people can experience what they need to get on in their profession."
A health board spokeswoman said Hywel Dda was particularly affected by "very real" national recruitment issues. "For example, we are currently trying to recruit into 37 per cent of our junior doctor
posts and 34 per cent of our consultant posts," she said."Due to the lack of specialist opportunities in Hywel Dda, we will continue to struggle to attract and retain senior medical staff.
"We need to make the most of being a major healthcare provider
and support our medical staff in developing more specialist services to make Hywel Dda Health Board attractive to doctors."This report predicting a potential surplus in eight years does not help our current predicament."
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