Jeremy Hunt calls on junior doctors to keep emergency cover during strike

[Northerner]

Jeremy Hunt has appealed to junior doctors not to withdraw emergency cover in the first all-out strike in NHS history, warning that the public would rightly question “whether this is proportionate or appropriate action by professionals whose patients depend on them”.

Junior doctors working across England are due to undertake a full walkout – refusing to provide emergency care, for the first time – on Tuesday and Wednesday from 8am to 5pm.
The industrial action has been called in opposition to a new contract which Hunt is set to impose on trainee medics in England, that will extend the hours that count as part of their normal working week, from 7pm to 10pm on weekdays and to include Saturday from 7am to 5pm for the first time.

http://www.theguardian.com/politics...doctors-to-keep-emergency-cover-during-strike

 

[macabee]

I hear a lot from doctors about the long hour's they are working, that the new contract will be unsafe alluding to excessive hours etc.
Well I went onto the BMA website to ascertain from the horses mouth about the long hour's http://www.bma.org.uk/support-at-work/ewtd
As I suspected the medical profession is covered, as are all workers by the EUWT [EU worktime directive] which is law in the UK, I now quote from the BMA website
'
The Directive reduces the working week to an average of 48 hours and there are further regulations relating to break periods and holiday allowance, such as:

• 11 hours rest a day and a right to a day off each week
• A right to a rest break if the working day is longer than six hours
• 5.6 weeks paid leave each year.

The EWTD or WTR has applied to consultants and career grade staff since October 1998 but initially junior doctors were exempt because there were concerns that the NHS would not be able to cope with the loss of so many junior doctor hours in such a short period of time. However in August 2004 the WTR was extended to cover junior doctors.

The working week for junior doctors has been reduced on a gradual basis reaching an average of 48 hours by 1 August 2009 (calculated over six months).

Although junior doctors are now covered by the WTR, it is still possible for doctors to work longer hours by signing an opt-out clause. The Junior Doctors Committee believes that this option should be retained only for those doctors who are able to determine their own working hours.'

According to the BMA any junior doctor working excessive hours [over and above the 48hours] has voluntarily signed an opt-out clause.

I believe first and foremost that striking doctors should heed what they are first taught that is 'DO NO HARM'

 

[AlisonM]

Jeremy Hunt (I still believe his name is misspelt) should heed that maxim himself macabee. I can recall the days when junior doctors routinely worked 70 hours or more per week, and frequently collapsed from exhaustion, quit or took to drugs in order to cope. EU working time directives improved that situation, now Hunt wants to reverse it. Doctors, whatever their status, are generally highly motivated and dedicated individuals and are currently being unfairly demonised by the media and certain politicians. It's not the doctors' fault the NHS is in crisis, but the government who have starved it of resources, squandered money on useless IT 'upgrades' that cost more millions to fix and ever deeper layers of administration and also imposed even more layers of expensive administrators while discouraging actual medical professionals from working within the system.

 

[Northerner]

This is all well and good, but what the government is suggesting is that, at the same time as REDUCING the hours of doctors, they will be INCREASING the availability of doctors by 40% - how does that work then? Has Jeremy Hunt got some sort of march on Einstein and is able to manipulate time? Ken Clarke repeated this claim on the Daily Politics today, saying it was all about pay and that doctors would work reduced and safer hours under the new contract. How is that even possible without reducing availability during the rest of the week if you don't encourage more people to enter the profession?

For me, it simply defies logic. The government have no plan for how this will work out in practice, just as they never seem to consider the consequences of trying to implement any of their soundbite claims Maybe if the doctors worked to rule then the lack of resource would be made more apparent to everyone.

 

[Diabeticliberty]

I have listened extensively to junior doctors being interviewed on the radio while drive to and from a client this morning. They have all said the same thing which is that they believe that the contract which Mr Hunt (name is very spelt incorrectly) is imposing upon them will directly put the safety of their patients at risk. Some are suggesting that if the contract is imposed then they will resign from the English NHS. We all need to question whether we believe the junior doctors. Mr Namespeltincorrectly suggests something which appears diametrically opposed to this position. From a position of personal experience I have never yet had a junior doctor tell me a bare faced lie. I did have the very personal pleasure of watching Mr. Namespeltincorrectly twist and squirm after his attempted steamrollering through parliament of the complete takeover of Sky by a certain Australian 'gentleman' of rather questionable morals. I genuinely have no political leanings. I do however believe that the NHS is in enough trouble without getting on the wrong side of the very people at the core of it who have the sorry task of making the thing work. At the sharp end of things quite literally, these are the people who I am relying on when it all goes pear shaped and I am desperate for a few more years on old Planet Earth. These are not career minded politicians who have no grasp and absolutely zero concept of life in the real world where the great unwashed have to earn a living 🙄

 

[Stoke 109]

I think Mr Hunt should make a trip to The hospital himself he clearly has something wrong with his hearing , he can't hear what most people are saying

 

[Ljc]

My last hospital stay was January this year I was in for around three weeks.
I saw the doctors come on my ward around 8-830 am , the Same doctors were still on duty at 8pm. This was a busy surgical ward.

I have every sympathy for the doctors and am sad it has come to this.

 

[KookyCat]

The working hours is a bit of a misdirection really I think. They are protected by the working time directive as are most of us, but and this is a big but, will they be voluntarily opting out if they have to work a double shift because the government have decided they're operating a longer service, but crucially not providing anywhere near enough extra resource? Does a doctor walk out of HDU and leave patients to die because they've reached the maximum 48 hours? Of course they won't they'll stay and work. The key fact is not the hours here actually it's that the new contract enables the NHS to pay less for those extra hours, because the new contract puts them in a terrible position. Let people die by walking away or stay and try to help them but be paid less than they currently are.

Returning to the hours, if a commercial business wants to increase "opening hours" let's say by double, they know that actually they need to double their workforce AND then add in more staff on top for the purpose of cover because the staff you already have are accounted for, the ones you recruit will be accounted for, so what happens when a quarter of them are sick. Their basic maths is awry in this instance. So you're basically saying we need to open more hours, but we insist that those of you who work here now are going to work fewer hours.....we will recruit some extra doctors (from the magic pool of secret doctors) but not enough to cover the hours. Its a back door pay cut, and they chose junior doctors precisely because they thought they had them by the short and curlies, they need the contract to progress, they need the money and hours to pay off the student debts, and crucially if they misbehaved they can be accused of endangering lives. Make no mistake Hunt is the one endangering lives here, not them.

Go junior doctors I say, kick, scream and fight dirty because the government will, and I for one know a dirty fight when I see one. Those nice clean suits they've got, and those plummy Etton accents don't hide their grubby interiors from me.