A PETITION calling for a vote of no confidence in Tory Health Minister Jeremy Hunt reached 284,244 signatures by yesterday afternoon, after his decision to impose an unsafe contract on the junior doctors.
Hunt announced his decision to impose the new contract the day after the second nationwide strike of junior doctors last Wednesday. The strike, which received rock solid support from the public at large, opposed the new contract which junior doctors rightly insist is unfair and unsafe for patients.
The petition on the government’s website reached over 100,000 signatures within 24 hours of its launch and will now have to be considered for debate in Parliament. Hunt further infuriated junior doctors yesterday when in an interview with the Guardian he accused the doctors union, the BMA of spreading misinformation and blamed them for lighting ‘a touchpaper’ that sparked the strike.
The petition, started by Graham Hillman, said: ‘Consider a vote of No Confidence in Jeremy Hunt, Health Secretary. ‘Mr Hunt recently gave totally inappropriate advice to Google conditions before seeking medical opinion. He referred to Paramedics as Ambulance Drivers and has caused the first Doctors strike in years of the NHS. Mr Hunt is destroying all staff morale in the NHS & will cause recruitment issues.’
Junior doctor Hannah Barham-Brown told News Line yesterday: ‘The way that Jeremy Hunt has behaved through out the whole dispute has been very disappointing. The easiest way out for him would be to return to open negotiations without the threat of imposition. Ultimately the most important thing is that we preserve the NHS for generations to come.
‘So we need to be looking at the bigger picture and not just the current health secretary. He has lost the faith of the profession and it may well come for him to leave in order to resolve the junior doctors dispute.’
Medical student Joe Harris said: ‘I signed the petition. I think that it is indicative towards the feeling towards Hunt as an individual and the way that he has behaved within the dispute. However, it shouldn’t be forgotten that ultimately he is taking advice and decisions from higher up, and this is a Tory Party-wide policy.
‘Cameron has done quite a good job at taking a lot of the heat away from himself, using Hunt as a sacrificial lamb. I really support that petition that Hunt should resign. However I think that the Tory Party should be kicked out as well. Even if Jeremy Hunt was to go I would not trust his successor either.’ The NHS is not safe in Tory hands, Jeremy Hunt or not.’