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Modernising Medical Careers

I apologise, Mr. Deputy Speaker. There are 650 MPs in the House, and I do not know how many of us have three As at A-level. I would imagine, however, that the number is in single figures. Junior doctors have had to plan from childhood to become doctors—deciding that they want to do so when they do their GCSEs and choose their A-levels—because it is incredibly hard to get the results necessary to go into medical training and pursue the career with determination for six or seven years. The Opposition have agreed that medical careers needed to be modernised, because the system did not work as it did in the past. As a nurse, I know that. What doctors did not need, however, was a computer system that failed hopelessly and abysmally, application dates for interviews extended by days, data lost and the computer system crashing. Junior doctors did not know what was happening to their applications, when or where—or if—their interviews were being held, or whether they would have a training position. Nor did junior doctors need uncertainty, particularly those who have families or are dependent on their jobs or salaries, as we all are. We are all dependent on knowing how much we will earn this year, particularly if we have a mortgage to pay. Thousands of junior doctors do not even know whether they will be able to make their mortgage payments, let alone whether they will be able to pay any debts that they may have brought with them out of university or medical school, or whether they will be living in a particular area with their families or working in a particular region.