First slash from NHS cuts

We have had our first taste of NHS cuts on GP training this week. We have five vacancies to start GP training in August 2011 but in order to balance the Deaneries budgets these will not now be filled. The posts that will not be filled in August are one in A&E at Pinderfields, one in respiratory medicine at DDH, one in Elderly Medicine at Pinderfields , one in Paediatrics at DDH and one in general practice.

The short term result will be that these posts will either not be filled or filled with locums (that will clearly be more expensive to the NHS) and this will destabilize these posts and make it more difficult for our trainees to be released for whole days and other training. The long term result is that in July 2014 we will produce five less qualified GPs.

When the NHS is becoming GP led this is totally bonkers!