Is new doctors fix the cure?

Eminent paediatrician Andy Raffles was drafted in on August 1 after junior doctors were removed from the hospital over safety concerns.

And this week Dr Raffles announced that four new consultants have been appointed by the hospital - who will all bring specialisms which will make services better.

Speaking about the crisis, which came to light after junior doctors raised safety fears about their training, he said: “My first job was to reassure our experienced staff that they are not bad people and they don’t deliver a bad service. Lots of hospitals rely on junior staff to deliver 24 hour care, and that’s where the problem came in for Bedford when those staff were taken away.”

He added: “What happened was inevitable, it’s just unfortunate that the way that it happened was so dramatic.”

And Dr Raffles claimed that the new appointments, and the ‘modern’ service model which the hospital is working towards, will please the majority of people.

He said: “We are going to get a modern service and for 95 per cent it will be an improved service. There is always going to be a hardcore of five per cent who say why do they have to go to Milton Keynes, but the service they get will be better.”

Any decisions on new services at the hospital are made by Bedford’s clinical commissioning group, and they will have the final say on any changes the hospital proposes.

Dr Raffles added: “I think by this time next year we will be nine tenths of where we need to get to.

“We should also get the trainees back because of the new consultants.

“The trainees are not coming back to be abused or ignored, they are coming back to learn a new model of care.”

Email your views to [email protected]