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REC responds to junior doctor vetting claims

The Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) has today responded to the claims that from next week, hundreds of junior doctors, including those from overseas, will be employed by NHS trusts without having undergone security checks.

Tom Hadley, the REC’s Director of External Relations, said: “Clearly, this is one more side-effect of the junior doctors’ training programme in that there has not been enough time allocated to carry out the necessary checks before new doctors start their new contracts on August 1.

" Although there are clear reasons for the lack of checks, we can understand people’s concern over safety and the need to ensure that there is consistency across all temporary and permanent staff working with patients within the NHS. 

 "Certainly, recruitment agencies who supply locum doctors into the NHS have to make sure that all temporary and locum staff have been properly vetted. As well as checking criminal records, this involves carrying other procedures to ensure safe recruitment such as effective reference-checking”.      

 Added Hadley: “On a general note, there is a great deal of concern over how Trusts will cope with having to register thousands of new doctors by August 1 and locum doctor agencies will continue to play a key role in ensuring that any short-term gaps in the system are addressed through the effective provision of tightly vetted locum doctors.”