Examination of Witnesses (Questions 40
- 42)
WEDNESDAY 4 FEBRUARY 2004
MR MARTIN
STANIFORTH, MS
JULIE CARNEY
AND MS
SUSAN SMITH
Q40 Lord Harrison: There is also the question
of the standards. You talked about the pilot studies and there
was some down-grading of the staff on-call for instance. Can you
give us reassurance in that area?
Mr Staniforth: I hope so. I think the issue
is not one of down-grading of those on-call. I think it is more
making the most appropriate person, which may well be a nurse
rather than a doctor, available at the time and ensuring that
we use doctors' skills for work that requires those skills, rather
than them being on-call and being used for a whole range of things
which are not medical work. It is trying to get a much better
balance between the demand on service and the skills of the people
who are available to provide that service.
Q41 Baroness Howarth of Breckland: Could
we be saying that the Directive has helped us to sharpen our thinking
in other directions in terms of matching skills to need?
Mr Staniforth: It is a direction we were moving
in, in any event, in terms of the work we have been doing on the
changing workforce programme, which has been looking at redesigning
roles and making sure that we have the right people with the right
skills in the right place, rather than perhaps always relying
on the traditional approach, that because there was a doctor there
they would do all of these things. The evidence that has been
coming out of our pilots is that we can reshape services, particularly
at night and weekends, to provide satisfactory services but without
requiring the same level of junior doctor input. That is probably
good for patients as well as for doctors.
Q42 Baroness Brigstocke: Obviously in the
health service there has been a great deal of working together
with other countries. I wonder if you have consulted with other
Member States on the rulings and if you know anything of the view
of other EU governments, particularly perhaps France and Germany.
Would there be a consolidation of views and a common position?
Mr Staniforth: Last July, the health ministers
for England, Denmark, Sweden and the Netherlands wrote to the
Commission expressing their concerns about the SiMAP ruling.
That was before we received the Jaeger ruling which came
through later in the autumn. Since that letter and the judgment,
we know that several other Member States have expressed concerns
about the impact of the ruling in their countries. We are aware
of concerns from Austria and Finland as well as from those countries
that have been working with us. We continue to discuss with all
other Member States the position and identify where there are
common areas of concern so that we can work jointly across Europe
in this.
Chairman: Thank you very much. If there
are no other comments or questions, can I thank you very much
indeed. We are very grateful and I think it will be very helpful
to our inquiry. We attach quite a lot of importance to the inquiry.
We have issues that are difficult for the United Kingdom although
you seem to handle them pretty well. We expect to report before
the Easter Recess.
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