News of Wales - Issue 1
October 2005
Chairman of the Welsh Consultants Committee – Mr Jonathan Osborne – reveals what the committee is all about and appeals to colleagues to ‘get involved’.
This committee represents consultants from each of the 13 hospital Trusts in Wales. The committee itself has a rotating membership, with each member serving a 3 year term. This allows consultants from all over Wales to get a taste for medical politics, prevents career medical politicians dominating proceedings and allows lively and informal debate on the issues of the day.
The committee has two main functions. The first is its trade union function to support consultants throughout Wales. It does this by negotiating directly with the WAG on contractual matters via its negotiating arm the Forum of Terms and Conditions Committee. This is supported by uniquely experienced and highly qualified assistant secretaries and industrial relations officers, who also provide local support to local negotiating committees in Trusts and the Forum of Local Negotiating Committees in Wales. This allows LNC members to get early warning of any local management initiatives that may affect consultants on their patch in the near future. As Wales is a small place, this sort of networking is an invaluable resource.
With the advent of devolution, the WCC has seized the initiative and negotiated a consultant contract with the Assembly Government that caused some consternation in England at the time, with many English consultants demanding the Welsh contract. Although there have been difficulties over implementation, the WCC is confident that the contract will withstand the test of time, help recruit consultants to Wales and serve both the NHS and consultants in Wales well.
If you feel strongly about the direction of the NHS in Wales and want to change things whilst representing your colleagues, I would urge you to stand for election from your Trust. The BMA is just about the only truly independent voice in the NHS in Wales, speaks without fear or favour and is widely, if grudgingly, respected by politicians, the media and other NHS organisations.The Welsh Consultants Committee is currently engaged in making sure the Assembly Government honours the Welsh Consultant Contract in full. This has been a helter skelter ride from being in a blissful partnership with the Government when we were designing the contract and everything was going pear shaped in England, to the tough task of getting a Government to pay out more than it had originally budgeted for. To do this Welsh Consultants had to call a vote of no confidence in the Assembly Governments ability to deliver the contract shortly before a general election. We were pleased to see this had the desired effect, even if your negotiator didn’t get many Christmas cards from Cardiff Bay this year.
Wales has decided to continue with a Government run health service in contrast to the market situation over Offa’s Dyke. Welsh consultants are therefore committed to helping the minister and his Government achieve this. The Government has recently published a 10 year strategy for the NHS in Wales to this effect. Welsh consultants will be making sure via the Welsh Consultants Committee, that the Government does not disinvest in the hospital sector but makes best use of what we have got by a process of evolution rather than radical reorganisation, where so often change only creates the illusion of progress while destabilising the service.
The Welsh Consultants Committee will continue to either support or constructively criticise the details of this strategy as it is rolled out across Wales.