BMA Q and A: public health registrars, on-call work and consultants contract talks

BMA public health medicine committee chair Iain Kennedy answers your questions What does the imposed junior doctors contract mean for public health registrars? The Government has said it will impose a new contract on junior doctors, including medically qualified public health registrars, from August. There are some specific impacts for public health registrars. The first is that the contractual requirement for an MSc in public health has been removed. This is a vital component for registrars to gain essential public health skills and could be lost if it is no longer provided. Basic pay for some registrars will increase, but this needs to be balanced by the reduction in remuneration for on-call work. Annual increments will cease and pay protection for doctors transferring to public health after a career elsewhere has been removed. This may affect recruitment into the specialty as many registrars train in another specialty before moving into public health later in their career.   What will the arrangements be for on-call work? A big issue for public health registrars is undertaking health protection on-call duties, which are done on a non-resident basis. Part of the new contract involved work scheduling — making an agreement with your supervisor about what kind of work you do during your training programme. On-call duties will form part of this. To calculate payment will involve an annual availability allowance of £2,400, plus a payment for hours work...
Source: BMA News - Category: UK Health Source Type: news