“It shows the depth of feeling among the medical profession, junior doctors are absolutely furious about what the Secretary of State is trying to do”.
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His attack on the BMA came as thousands of doctors are expected to protest against the Government’s plans to impose a new contract at a rally in London on Saturday.
Jeremy Hunt yesterday claimed that the union had been “misleading” junior doctors about the plans, insisting that they were a “good deal” because they would reduce the maximum hours a doctor can be asked to work.
Under the current plans set to be in place by August 2016, the contract will reclassify doctors’ normal working week to include Saturdays and up to 10pm every night of the week except Sunday.
The BMA has said its junior doctor members will be balloted for industrial action, which could mean doctors going on strike, or taking action short of a strike, which could involve them refusing to do additional unpaid overtime that is usual for doctors, or declining to fill out death certificates.
The British Medical Association’s junior doctor committee has warned that the contract changes will risk patient safety by stretching overworked and exhausted hospital doctors even further.
Mr Hunt said reductions in pay for working antisocial hours would be offset with an increase in basic pay.
“Junior doctors do work a lot of weekends but … because you have these very punitive rates at the moment hospitals simply can’t afford to roster enough people at weekends”. The protest will start with speeches at 2pm at Waterloo Place, before the march moves along Pall Mall and Whitehall to end in Parliament Square. “Frankly, if I was in his shoes, and I was being told the Government was making the kinds of changes he was talking about, I would be very angry as well….[but] we are not doing what he said”.
“That means you have a 15% greater chance of dying if you are admitted at the weekend rather than a weekday”.
“This is unacceptable and would not have allowed the BMA to negotiate over proposals we believe are unsafe for patients, unfair for doctors and undermine the future of the NHS”.
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Lonsdale said he was paid a total of around £53,000 a year, had had just four days off in the entire month of September, and paid out at least £3,500 in compulsory training fees. “But Jeremy Hunt is going to remove the financial penalties that trusts get imposed on them if they overwork doctors, that is a fact”. And another reason why it is so disappointing is because what we want to do is exactly the same as what doctors want.
