HC Deb 09 July 1987 vol 119 cc263-4W
Mr. Ieuan Wyn Jones

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services (1) what is his Department's policy towards issuing guidelines to each health authority in England and Wales governing the hours to be worked by junior doctors in general hospitals;

(2) what guidelines his Department issued to area health authorities on the hours of work of working parties; and if he will make a statement on their future;

(3) whether his Department has reviewed rota arrangements for junior doctors, in view of the agreement reached between his Department and the British Medical Association in 1982; and if he will make a statement.

Mr. Newton

The issue of guidance to health authorities in Wales is a matter for my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Wales.

Departmental guidance to authorities in England on the hours of work of junior hospital doctors and dentists is contained in circulars PM(82)37, AL(MD)3/83 and PM(85)1, copies of which I have placed in the Library. This bans regular rotas requiring a practitioner to be on duty, on average, for more than one night and one weekend in two. It also asks authorities to aim for a target maximum commitment of one in three or better, where practicable, and to set up local professional working parties to recommend means of achieving this.

Following reviews undertaken in consultation with working parties betwen 1982 and 1985, it is estimated that the number of rotas more onerous than one in three fell or was planned to fall from 5,000 to 3,500, representing 18.4 per cent. of junior posts. In addition, the average weekly contracted hours of juniors have fallen in every year since 1979, from over 90 to 85.7, and surveys commissioned by the Review Body on Doctors' and Dentists' Remuneration show that the average weekly

Number of notifications of abortions carried out under the Abortion Act 1967 by grounds and gestation period. Residents and non-residents. Annual and first quarter, 1982–1986
England and Wales
Grounds Gestation period in completed weeks
under 20 20 21 22 23 24 and over
1982
All 159,276 1,262 623 854 477 462
1 (with any other) 662 5 1 3 1 2
5 (alone) 4 3
1983
All 158,186 1,322 651 936 451 505
1 (with any other) 523 6 2 2 1 11
5 (alone) 2 1
1984
All 165,563 1,550 695 938 619 532
1 (with any other) 586 2 1 3 4
5 (alone) 6 1 2

hours actually worked have also fallen, from 58.3 in 1981 to 57 in 1985. We expect authorities to keep the need for the remaining rotas more onerous than one in three under review, and it is open to them to convene working parties for that purpose.

The Department is currently collecting further informtion on practitioners' hours of work which it has undertaken to discuss with the profession's representatives.