BY BEN KERRIGAN
Thousands of patients will be at risk of serious delay, cancellation, and even physical harm when junior doctors go on strike next month. The series of strikes scheduled for next month are the first of its kind in the history of the NHS. Secretary of health Minister, Jeremy Hunt, has been blasted for his refusal to face MP’s questions at the House of Commons. Meanwhile, MP, Alistair Burt raised alarm about the prospect of several patients having their health endangered if the planned strikes are not avoided and prevented.
Burt described the three strikes over weekend working as “entirely avoidable” and urged the British Medical Association to avoid anything that risks harm to patients. He pointed out that he government reserves the right to change doctors’ contracts if an agreement cannot be reached to facilitate the “truly” seven-day NHS promised by the Tories during the general election. However, in a ballot of junior doctors by the British Medical Association, all respondents voted to go on strike.
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Burt told MPs: “The secretary of state has said that talks can take place without preconditions other than that an agreement should be within the pay envelope, but the government reserves the right to make changes to contracts if no progress is made on the issues preventing a truly seven-day NHS, as promised in the manifesto and endorsed by the British people He added that the government had not ruled out mediation through the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS), as requested by the BMA, but argued it would be premature to go to ACAS now because negotiations have not properly started.
RIGHT
The government reserves the right to change doctors’ contracts if an agreement cannot be reached to facilitate the “truly” seven-day NHS promised by the Tories during the general election.
Burt told MPs: “The secretary of state has said that talks can take place without preconditions other than that an agreement should be within the pay envelope, but the government reserves the right to make changes to contracts if no progress is made on the issues preventing a truly seven-day NHS, as promised in the manifesto and endorsed by the British people at the last election.” Burt’s language, as well as the language of Jeremy Hunt, is bullish as he expects talk under terms that suit him alone. He is refusing a discussion that is open to the wide concerns of doctors right across the country.
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Burt has asked all sides to avoid the language of conflict and stop viewing this as an industrial dispute. However, this has indeed become an industrial dispute simply because the government have been difficult in paying doctors what they feel they deserve. There have been protests and marches around the country against the imposition of contracts that force doctors to work longer hours for less many. The BMA have argued that more unsociable hours means tired doctors, and tired doctors make mistakes. As such, it is completely unreasonable, and in fact, reckless, for the government to make such arbitrary demands without matching it with higher pay. In fact, higher pay does not really address the issue of doctors working when tired since this puts patients at risk. The demand for longer hours and lower pay is simply an insult to the intelligence of doctors, and one that shows disregard to patients who are actually the public and the electorate.
Doctors make a very important contribution to society in providing a very useful service to alleviate the pains and illnesses members of the public suffer on a daily basis. There is no day when the emergency service in every hospital is not busy treating patients in desperate need of medical health. There is no day in any hospital where there are not a number of patients in need of medical attention. It is therefore shameful that this situation has not be adequately dealt with long before it got to this stage. The shadow health secretary, Heidi Alexander, said the situation made her “angry and sad”, adding: “It didn’t have to be this way.” The British medical association(BMA) have been accused of arbitrarily ending the talks and have been called upon to rejoin them.
No matter how this dispute is viewed, one cannot help but to lean towards the perspective of junior doctors because the government should simply step up to the plate and secure satisfactory contracts and stop letting the British public down. The NHS was one of the topics used for election scoring points during the campaign in the last elections. It is barely 6 months since the Tories have been back in power, and we have junior doctors trying to go on strike in what would be very disruptive to the NHS. It’s an absolute disgrace and the government need to sort it out and do so quickly.
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