HARRIS CONDEMNS RADCLIFFE SURGEON REDUNDANCIES

1.08.15pm UTC (GMT +0000) Mon 26th Jun 2006

Addressing doctors at the BMA Annual Representative Meeting in Belfast today in response to news of the impending redundancy of two consultants at the Oxford Radcliffe Hospital, Dr Evan Harris, Local Liberal Democrat MP, said:

"This action, suggested by one of the accountants in the so called 'turn-around team' sent into the hospital by the government, shows what a dreadful state the NHS is in."

Dr Harris, who 15 years ago worked as a junior surgeon in the same department as the two surgeons, told the conference:

"Thanks to the superb skill of surgeons in Oxford, the Upper GI team has obtained excellent results for treating cancer of the oesophagus, which in my day as a house surgeon at the hospital had a far lower chance of survival than it does now."

Dr Harris, who is attending the conference as a representative of doctors in the Oxford area, added:

"It is a terrible shame and shameful that the careers of surgeons which it has taken over 15 years to train at a time are under threat when the NHS needs more specialist doctors not fewer.

"It is crazy that NHS cuts such as these are judged by Patricia Hewitt to be a sign of success and efficiency.

"Only in the crazy parallel NHS universe occupied by Patricia Hewitt would an over-paid management consultant be allowed to dispense with an over-worked NHS consultant."