‘JUNIOR doctors cannot and will not accept a contract that is bad for the future of patient care, the profession and the NHS as a whole,’ doctors’ union BMA said yesterday.
They were responding to an announcement in parliament by health secretary Jeremy Hunt that the new contract would be imposed. Hunt told parliament, ‘In January I asked David Dalton, chief executive of Salford Royal to lead the negotiating team for the government.’
He added: ‘On the crucial issue of Saturday pay, David wrote to me yesterday advising me that the negotiated solution is not realistically possible. He has asked me to end the uncertainty for the service by proceeding with the introduction of a new contract.
‘I have therefore today decided to do that’.
Dr Johann Malawana, BMA junior doctor committee chair, said: ‘The decision to impose a contract is a sign of total failure on the government’s part. Instead of working with the BMA to reach an agreement that is in the best interests of patients, junior doctors and the NHS as a whole, the government has walked away, rejecting a fair and affordable offer put forward by the BMA. Instead it wants to impose a flawed contract on a generation of junior doctors who have lost all trust in the Health Secretary.
‘Junior doctors already work around the clock, seven days a week and they do so under their existing contract. If the government wants more seven-day services then, quite simply, it needs more doctors, nurses and diagnostic staff, and the extra investment needed to deliver it.
‘Rather than addressing these issues, the Health Secretary is ploughing ahead with proposals that are fundamentally unfair. This is clearly a political fight for the government rather than an attempt to come to a reasonable solution for all junior doctors.
‘If it succeeds with its bullying approach of imposing a contract on junior doctors that has been roundly rejected by the profession it will no doubt seek to do the same for other NHS staff. It is notable that the rest of the UK has chosen a different, constructive path on junior doctors’ contracts with only the Health Secretary in England choosing imposition over agreement.
‘The government’s shambolic handling of this process from start to finish has totally alienated a generation of junior doctors – the hospital doctors and GPs of the future, and there is a real risk that some will vote with their feet.
‘Our message to the government is clear: junior doctors cannot and will not accept a contract that is bad for the future of patient care, the profession and the NHS as a whole, and we will consider all options open to us.’
Medical student Hannah Barham-Brown told News Line: ‘This is not something that any junior doctors can accept and we will stand by whatever the BMA will do next.
‘We have to all stick together with our union at a time like this.
‘If the BMA call an all-out strike I will stand by and support that, so that we can protect the NHS as best we can. I am hugely disappointed with the government. Imposition is something that nobody wants to see. A lot of junior doctors are seriously looking at their futures and considering whether they have a future in the NHS. I have already had messages from teachers who say please stand up for yourselves.’
Unison General Secretary Dave Prentis took a by-stander’s position saying: ‘This is a cynical move by Jeremy Hunt and a disaster for NHS industrial relations. It’s proof the government regards the views of hardworking NHS staff as worthless … Unions can’t have faith in any future negotiations if ministers just choose to impose what they want, when they want.’
Unite national officer for health, Colenzo Jarrett-Thorpe, said: ‘Jeremy Hunt has adopted a very macho posture and thinks he is re-running the Tory onslaught against the miners in the 1980s – junior doctors are not “the enemy within” and the secretary of state should not use this portrayal …
‘Unite calls on Hunt to seriously rethink the imposition and get back around the table with the British Medical Association (BMA). In the meantime, we will offer all the support of the union to the junior doctors, since an attack on them is an attack on all NHS workers.’
