Hospital chiefs undercut Hunt claim on doctors’ contract

Jeremy Hunt told MPs that the BMA had rejected the “best and final” offer to settle the dispute.

He said a basic pay rise of 13.5 per cent (not 11 per cent as previously thought) and a concession to raise pay on Saturday after 5pm was a compromise that went far beyond where initial talks started.

Sir David denied that the chief executives listed on the letter had been asked to give their support to imposed contracts. “It is incredibly demoralising to be a part of the front line staff and understand the practical implications of the contract, only to have your concerns fall on deaf ears and get steam rolled for political gain”. The most dramatic figure was in The Independent, which ran a poll this week that found 90 percent of doctors would quit over the new contract before it was imposed.

The health secretary is not even clear on what he means by a seven-day-week NHS. “I have lived in a country where there is no NHS and we don’t know how lucky we are”.

“Patients, the public and healthcare professionals and students want an NHS that is publicly funded, publicly provided, publicly accountable and free at the point of use”.

The BMA, which has argued that the changes do not provide proper safeguards against doctors working dangerously long hours, responded by saying it would seek new ways to fight the reforms. “I have supported the view that the offer made is reasonable”.

Assuming the government’s latest offer was enforced on junior doctors, the new system would be phased in from August of this year.

In 2005 the health secretary co-authored a book, “Direct Democracy” calling for the NHS to be dismantled.

“Some people have said it’s probably the most unsafe decision in NHS history”. Junior doctors are realising that if this government wants to privatise the NHS, they can either continue strike action or they can look overseas. “This year UH Bristol was rated the most improved hospital for trainees, out of the 14 in the deanery”, she added.

Yesterday Johann Malawana, the chair of the junior doctor’s group at the BMA, posted the names of the NHS executives who signed the letter, warning that they “seem so keen on the new contract without the safeguards” and hinted that doctors at those Trusts may be forced to work without breaks.

BMA council chairman Mark Porter said the move would be seen as “threatening and dictatorial” and warned nurses and other clinical staff to prepare for similar treatment, while Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said imposing contracts was ” provocative and damaging”. It’s interesting that Scotland and Wales are trying to encourage doctors there.

It said junior doctors “cannot and will not accept” the contract and will “consider all options” available to them.

Dr Peter Holt, a vascular surgeon at St George’s University of London, said he had written to Jeremy Hunt, the Health Select Committee and shadow Health Secretary Heidi Alexander raising his objection.