Anna Soubry insists she supports women GPs after appearing to agree with claims that they are a huge burden on the NHS
The health minister, Anna Soubry, has been forced to explain herself after appearing to agree with comments about the "burden" female doctors could put on the NHS.
Tory MP Anne McIntosh said training female doctors who would go on to have children and work part-time would put a tremendous burden on the health service.
Soubry appeared to accept her point about the unintended consequences of the number of women who are training to be doctors. But she was later forced to clarify her comments, saying that she fully supports female GPs and her comments were not intended to be derogatory.
During a Westminster Hall debate, McIntosh said: "It's a controversial thing to say, but perhaps I as a woman can say this – 70% of medical students currently are women and they are very well educated and very well qualified.
"When they go into practice, and then in the normal course of events will marry and have children, they often want to go part-time, and it is obviously a tremendous burden training what effectively might be two GPs working part-time where they are ladies. And I think that is something that is going to put a huge burden on the health service."
Soubry replied: "Could I just say very quickly that you make a very important point when you talk about, rightly, the good number of women who are training to be doctors but the unintended consequences."
She later issued a statement saying: "I fully support women GPs. My comments were not intended to be derogatory and I was responding to a point made by another MP during the debate.
"As the head of the Royal College of General Practitioners also recently pointed out, some female GPs work part-time due to families. The solution is that we need to increase the number of GPs and we are doing that. This government supports good working practices such as flexible working, job sharing and part-time working, which help retain female doctors."
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