Exclusive

“CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER SHOULD HAVE QUIT” – DAVID OWEN

05-12-2007

Former Health Minister Lord David Owen has described the confusion over a new recruitment scheme for junior doctors’ earlier this year as “a monumental foul up” and says the Chief Medical Officer Sir Liam Donaldson should have stood down.

Owen was responding to an email sent by Stirrer blogger and City Hospital neurologist Dr David Nicholl who’s leading a campaign to force Donaldson to quit over the fiasco (see link here).

Nicholl has also warned on this site that the situation next year will be even worse (see link here)

Along with a group of others neurologists, he’s putting together a letter-cum-petition to present to parliament with the aim of toppling the man at the top.

Owen’s response was to say that he wouldn’t join the call for Donaldson’s head, because he doesn’t think as a former Health Minister that it’s “appropriate”.

But he adds that the MMC affair was “a monumental foul up for which he should have accepted responsibility and stepped down.

“Also more of the leaders of the profession at the time, the Presidents of the Royal Colleges, should have followed suit.

"Unfortunately, resignation seems unfashionable these days, particularly amongst politicians."