I am writing as junior doctors from the United Kingdom have just started training posts, and wish to highlight how the profession (and, more pertinently, patients) have been compromised over the past year, particularly in Scotland.

Countless reports have been made regarding the debacle of Modernising Medical Careers (the government initiative to streamline training), and few would dispute that the recruitment of doctors to higher training has been fraught with mistakes, driven by a political agenda (and ratified by members of the profession who should have known better).

The human cost of this was recently highlighted by a survey published in the BMJ, showing increased suicides among junior doctors, as well as suggesting detrimental effects on patient care. Anecdotal reports and unpublished data from the west of Scotland have substantiated this. Whereas, in England, a second round of recruitment was started along more accepted lines, in Scotland there was no scope for this, and I have watched aghast as a talented generation of Scottish doctors has been forced to apply to other areas, throwing their lives into chaos.

Yesterday I received news that, for English trainees, there will be 1000 more posts created, acknowledging the difficulties in the system, and offering local trainees an opportunity to continue their work. As a Glasgow-born and educated doctor, I have had the opportunity to train abroad and at various centres throughout the United Kingdom.

I choose to work here, and give back to a system that has, until recently, rewarded and nurtured hard work and endeavour. I am aware of the difficulties in changing the system now (having sat on committees focused on higher training), but would still ask the Scottish Executive to give some thought to my generation of doctors, and facilitate a passage to higher training for those still compromised by a poorly-thought-out system that, quite literally, is driving doctors to despair.

There is one principle that unites junior doctors, regardless of their grade, speciality or background: they want to acquire the necessary skills to treat patients to the best of their ability. I would ask that we be allowed to do so.

Dr Sameer Jauhar, Leverndale Hospital, 510 Crookston Road, Glasgow.

Original article here