BMA Cymru Wales Welcomes Health Minister's Extension Of Free Accommodation For Junior Doctors

Main Category: Medical Students / Training
Also Included In: Public Health
Article Date: 10 Nov 2008 - 3:00 PDT

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All first year doctors training in Wales will now benefit from free hospital accommodation until July 2010. Health Minister Edwina Hart had previously agreed to extend the provision of free on-site housing for F1 training grade doctors in Wales, until next Summer. She has now announced that will be extended for a further 12 months.

The decision follows discussions with BMA Cymru and the postgraduate deanery, and protests by medical students outside the University Hospital of Wales, in Cardiff, after the requirement for pre-registration doctors to be resident at a hospital was removed from the Medical Act.

It is estimated this would have cost newly qualified junior doctors around £4,800 a year, on top of average student debts of £20,000.

Welcoming the move Dr Richard Lewis, Welsh Secretary of the BMA, said: "This announcement by Edwina Hart demonstrates the Welsh Assembly Government's commitment to value the role of junior doctors and ensure Wales becomes the destination of choice for medical training. It is a victory for the collaborative working between the profession and government as NHS Wales returns to the core principles on which the health service was founded.

"The minister clearly recognises the importance of valuing junior staff in Wales. We have shortfalls in posts in Wales and this will go some way towards creating the culture which is necessary to attract the best medical talent for the future. This, associated with a number of other initiatives to improve training opportunities and academic medicine and research programmes, will bode well for the future of training in Wales and ultimately for Welsh patients."

British Medical Association