Come on Jeremy – take a leaf out of George’s
book.
One good thing has come
out of the recent welfare budget debacle. George Osborne demonstrated how a government
minister can quickly change their mind in the face of irrefutable arguments
against a bad decision.
Oh if only Jeremy
Hunt would do the same thing. The junior doctor’s opposition to the Health
Secretary’s new contract has now reached a previously unthinkable stage as they
plan a ‘full withdrawal of labour’ between
8am and 5pm on April 26 and then 8am to 5pm on April 27. This conflict must
stop – and it is down to Hunt to make the pain go away.
I use the word conflict advisedly – this is much more than a
dispute now – it is more akin to a bloody
civil war – where the blameless victims are anyone who may need the state
health service now or on the future. And maybe the doctors are victims too.
When the arguments started in earnest around this new contract in 2014 I felt
sure that clinicians wouldn’t jeopardise the wellbeing of their patients, and
as a healthcare professional myself, felt that I could never condone strike
action. But two years on – no-one can doubt the strength of feeling among these
doctors and their desperation that has lead us to this sorry state.
Hunt insists that the
doctors ‘don’t understand’ the contract. Come on Jeremy – it may have escaped
you, but you actually have to be pretty intelligent to become a doctor. The
British Medical Association doesn’t just employ doctors, they will have had
lawyers look at the contract too – and I am confident that they do understand
it. And they don’t like it. Never will.
I have been privileged to
have worked alongside many junior doctors and have been treated as a patient by
several too and I have never come across a lazy doctor. They work their butts
off. They care about their job, they care about their patients and they always
do more than their contracted hours. Yes, there may be some need for cost
cutting and reshaping in the NHS but if you are going to bash anyone- do not
bash the doctors.
Savings must be found elsewhere
and the planned changes to the NHS working week must be reformulated. If the
doctors do finally give in - which is clearly what Jeremy Hunt believes they
will do – he won’t have won. The battle will be momentarily over but the war
will still wage. In a great little memoir on power – Robert Greene states ‘Any triumph you think you have gained through
argument is really a Pyrrhic victory: the resentment and ill will you stir up
are stronger and last longer than any momentary change of opinion. It is much
more powerful to get others to agree with you through your actions, without
saying a word. Demonstrate, do not explicate’
So Mr Hunt, take heed.
Please do not beat these hard working, dedicated decent human beings into a
grudging submission. Less of the explanations, more of the demonstration.
Withdraw the contract – redraft another one in close association with the BMA –
and then everyone can get on with what they do best – looking after patients.
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