Remedy UK was a pressure group representing junior doctors in the United Kingdom. The organisation was set up by four junior doctors in 2007 to campaign against UK government-led medical training reforms known as Modernising Medical Careers(MMC) and their implementation through the Medical Training Application Service (MTAS). Remedy UK was created in response to what was perceived to be an insufficiently robust response by the official doctors' trade union, the BMA, and professional associations (Royal Colleges of Medicine).
Remedy UK had over 13,000 members and campaigns as a grassroots doctors' organisation. It was supported by optional subscriptions from its members.
After Remedy UK lost an application for Judicial Review in May 2007, the BMA announced that it would not seek to recover its legal costs. [1] An Early Day Motion in the UK Parliament was signed by 50 MPs that urged the Secretary of State not to pursue costs against Remedy UK. [2]
Remedy UK announced its closure on 15 May 2012, [3] saying it had been "unable to sustain the management and leadership that an effective Remedy needs." [4]
Remedy UK mounted several high-profile campaigns against Modernising Medical Careers.
In the Westminster parliamentary system, an early day motion (EDM) is a motion, expressed as a single sentence, tabled by a member of Parliament, which the Government has not yet scheduled for debate.
The British Medical Association (BMA) is a registered trade union for doctors in the United Kingdom. It does not regulate or certify doctors, a responsibility which lies with the General Medical Council. The BMA has a range of representative and scientific committees and is recognised by National Health Service (NHS) employers alongside the Hospital Consultants and Specialists Association as one of two national contract negotiators for doctors.
The Autism Awareness Campaign – United Kingdom was launched in 2000 by British parents and carers Ivan Corea and his wife Charika Corea in response to the autism diagnosis of their son, Charin.
In the United Kingdom, junior doctors are qualified medical practitioners working whilst engaged in postgraduate training. The period of being a junior doctor starts when they qualify as a medical practitioner following graduation with a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery degree and start the UK Foundation Programme. It culminates in a post as a consultant, a general practitioner (GP), or some other non-training post, such as a specialty doctor or associate specialist post.
Jeremy Richard Streynsham Hunt is a British politician serving as Chancellor of the Exchequer since 2022. He previously served in the Cabinet as Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport from 2010 to 2012, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care from 2012 to 2018 and Foreign Secretary from 2018 to 2019. A member of the Conservative Party, he has been Member of Parliament (MP) for South West Surrey since 2005.
Modernising Medical Careers (MMC) is a programme for postgraduate medical training introduced in the United Kingdom in 2005. The programme replaced the traditional grades of medical career before the level of Consultant. The different stages of the programme contribute towards a "Certificate of Completion of Training" (CCT). It has been dogged by criticism within and outside the medical profession, and an independent review of MMC led by Professor Sir John Tooke criticised many aspects of it.
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A specialty registrar (StR), previously known as and still commonly referred to as a specialist registrar (SpR), is a doctor, public health practitioner or dentist who is working as part of a specialty training programme in the UK. This is known as a training grade as these doctors are supervised to an extent, as part of a structured training experience that leads to being able to undertake independent practice in a hospital specialty or working as a general practitioner.
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The Medical Training Application Service was an on-line application system set up under the auspices of Modernising Medical Careers in 2007 and used for the selection of Foundation House Officers and Specialty Registrars, and allocating them to jobs in the UK. Its implementation was heavily criticised both in the press and within the medical profession, and its operation was marked by the resignation of key staff and serious security breaches. The system affected junior doctors, and so every qualified doctor in the UK who had not yet attained Consultant status.
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Jeremy Hunt served as Secretary of State for Health, later Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, from 2012 to 2018. Appointed by David Cameron, Hunt served in the Cameron–Clegg coalition and Cameron majority government. He was reappointed by Theresa May and served in the majority and minority May governments. In January 2018, Hunt gained additional responsibility for social care in England and, in June, became the longest-serving Health Secretary in British political history. He left the role when he was promoted to Foreign Secretary following the resignation of Boris Johnson, and was succeeded by Matt Hancock.
Hamish Meldrum is a British doctor who worked as a general practitioner and was Chair of the Council of the British Medical Association (BMA) 2007–2012. He took this role on after being Chair of the BMA's General Practitioners Committee (GPC) 2004–2007.
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