BMA facing backlash from members over handling of contract dispute

The British Medical Association is facing a major backlash from angry members and an exodus by medics disillusioned with its “appalling” handling of the bitter junior doctors’ dispute.

There has been a spate of resignations from the doctors’ union after it announced, then called off, a series of five-day all-out strikes in a failed attempt to stop the health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, imposing a controversial new contract on the 54,000 trainee medics in the NHS in England.

Members are accusing the BMA of being “spineless” and “incompetent” and of betraying junior doctors, and there are growing calls for the creation of a rival trade union to represent them. BMA leaders, one of whom admitted privately that it has ended up “in a big mess”, are worried that its handling of the year-long contract row has left it divided and weakened in defeat.

Junior doctors have inundated their Facebook discussion group with angry messages about the BMA and Dr Ellen McCourt, the chair of the union’s junior doctors committee (JDC). Some have posted screengrabs of cancelled direct debit forms, showing that they are rescinding their membership.

“I don’t want to just cancel my direct debit. I want to tell the BMA why I am withdrawing my subscription. I want to tell them how spineless they have been,” said junior doctor Mukhtar Ahmed.

He criticised the BMA for endorsing in May a revised contract that it had negotiated without seeking members’ views. The contract was later rejected by 58% to 42% in a referendum among junior doctors.

“I want them to know that these series of blunders have not only lost us this fight, but any future fight and the NHS as a whole. I believe in the power of the union but not this one,” Ahmed said.

The BMA is examining alternative forms of protest against the contract, which will start being imposed from next week. It is due to announce details this week, though the options under consideration are believed not to involve any form of industrial action, such as a work-to-rule or refusal to do overtime.

Many doctors are angry that they heard from the BBC rather than the BMA last Saturday night that the union had called off planned strikes. Junior doctor David Pye said: “I am done. I shall not be sending you any more money. I have put up with utter incompetence, fucking survey monkey polls to see what I think, leaks, power struggles and, for the third time, I find out our master plan via BBC news and not via my union. Goodbye.”

Increasing calls to set up an alternative organisation to represent trainee doctors intensified after the decision. “Time to form a new trade union – run by junior doctors and only for junior doctors. Getting recognised won’t be easy and it may take too long for this dispute but now the BMA has proven it is not fit for purpose, this is our only option for the future,” said medic Christopher Howarth.

McCourt and the JDC decided to abandon further industrial action in the campaign against Hunt after large numbers of junior doctors made clear that they had deep misgivings about taking part. BMA leaders feared that turnout might be as low as 20%, well down on the majority support during the eight previous days of industrial action between January and May.

A five-day strike due earlier this month was cancelled after the BMA admitted giving hospitals too little time to make arrangements to cope with the disruption. The first long stoppage was due to take place on 5, 6, 7, 10 and 11 October, despite warnings from senior doctors, medical bodies and the chief executive of NHS England, Simon Stevens, that patients would be at risk.

There is widespread anger among junior doctors at the cancellation, even though it appears that many of them were opposed to such a long stoppage. Many think the U-turn was merely the latest in a series of tactical blunders by the union in their unsuccessful battle to force Hunt to back down.

A sizeable minority of members of the BMA’s ruling council fear the union has done itself potentially irreparable harm and that the plan for five-day strikes has severely damaged public trust in doctors and left them looking uncaring and reckless. Some believe that Dr Mark Porter, the union’s leader, allowed its JDC too much freedom under McCourt and her predecessor, Johann Malawana, to decide its own tactics.

In a post on the Facebook site in response to the torrent of online anger, McCourt insisted the junior doctors’ campaign would go on. Defending the cancellation, she said: “We had a choice that included continuing the current planned industrial action, changing the planned IA or suspending the action. The JDC, having weighed up the new information, debated the options and voted to suspend the IA and pursue other means of resisting the contract. This does not mean the fight against imposition and this contract is over.”

BMA facing backlash from members over handling of contract dispute