A RETIRED Worcestershire GP has hit out at the Government over the "disaster" of doctors' training in England.

This week an independent inquiry - the Tooke review - concluded the Department of Health should be stripped of the role of training doctors following the fiasco last year which saw thousands of young medics take to the streets in protest when they found jobs were unavailable for them. The report into the Government's Modernising Medical Careers programme has been welcomed by all political parties and leading medical bodies.

Dr Jan Adams, a county GP based near Kidderminster who retired five years ago, said: "Britain's training of doctors used to be respected around the world. Now, under this Government, it has reached such a state of crisis that it has to be taken out of the hands of the Department of Health.

"The Tooke report argues what doctors have been saying for ages - the Modernising Medical Careers initiative is such a disaster that it shows the Department of Health should no longer be involved in doctor training or selection at all.

"After six years of training and at a cost of hundreds of thousands to the nation, it is very sad and mad that these young doctors are not able to find the job they were trained for."

Her comments were supported by Robin Walker, the Tory parliamentary candidate for Worcester, who said: "A year after the Conservatives highlighted the disaster of Modernising Medical Careers, we see from the professionals the damning verdict on the Government's performance.

"Not only have they messed around professionals in the NHS, they are deemed to have done so badly that they are not fit to run the process in future. I would like to see more power devolved from the government to the professionals in our hospitals."

But Mike Foster, Worcester's Labour MP, said: "The Government has said it will look carefully at the recommendations that have come forward," he said.

"It's a serious matter which does not lend itself to the party political opportunism that Robin Walker is trying to engage in. We will look to set out how we proceed with training for 2009 and the future.

"It's important to point out that we now have considerably more doctors working in our hospitals and our health service since 1997 as a result of the extra investment in the NHS."