Hospitals 'abusing' emergency staffing process, says BMA

DOCTORS' UNION CLAIMS 'DANGEROUS LACK OF PLANNING' FOR STRIKES PUTS PATIENTS AT RISK

- By JOSHUA HARTLEY [e-mail]

NOTTINGHAM'S hospitals have been accused of repeatedly abusing an emergency procedure in a way that puts patients at risk.

Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs Queen's Medical Centre and City Hospital, has been accused of misusing derogations, which were used to return doctors to their stations during the recently finished resident doctor strike.

The British Medical Association (BMA), the trade union for doctors, said it had been forced to accept a derogation for seven resident doctors at the Emergency Department at QMC on Friday, November 14, due to the trust's “dangerous lack of planning”.

The BMA has now accused NUH of continuously failing to prepare for strikes and heavily depending on these derogations instead which the union says are meant to be for emergencies.