Patient safety will be at risk in NHS hospitals across England if the government does not intervene to speed up the appointment of more than 2,000 junior doctors within the next two weeks, the British Medical Association warned yesterday.
Hamish Meldrum, the chairman, said ministers have not yet resolved problems caused by the botched introduction of a new system to select doctors for training to become consultants.
Patricia Hewitt, the then health secretary, apologised in May for mistakes by the medical training and application service that did not give doctors a fair chance in competing for 15,600 training places. About 13,300 posts were filled over the last few weeks. But Dr Meldrum said that left about 16,000 doctors competing for 2,300 posts that have not yet been allocated.
"Alan Johnson, the new health secretary, must act now. He has said he wishes to engage with the medical profession. What we want to see is action as well as words. Getting doctors in post is a patient safety issue," he said.
"If there are jobs without doctors it will also be bad for patients. I don't want to scaremonger, but given the size of the crisis there have to be concerns."
Dr Meldrum said there was a "double whammy" for the quality of doctors' education and training. With falling numbers of medical academics the quality of teaching at medical school was under threat. There was also a risk of postgraduate training being "dumbed down" because of the training reforms, coupled with restrictions on working time.
He said he was encouraged by talks with Mr Johnson last week. The health secretary was keen to establish a better relationship with the medical profession. "But there is a degree of scepticism and cynicism in the profession that we have heard these words before, but the actions have not borne out the words."
A Department of Health spokesman said: "A new rotation of junior doctors starts in August every year and has done for decades. The numbers involved will be higher this year, but NHS trusts are used to dealing with this issue and have plans in place to make sure services continue to run during August."