Jeremy Hunt has accused junior doctors of inflicting “the worst doctors’ strike in NHS history” by announcing a five-day walkout later this month.
In a series of broadcast interviews on Thursday, the health secretary also tried to exploit divisions in the BMA, the doctors’ union, after members rejected a deal over new contracts recommended by the body’s leaders.
Speaking to Sky News, Hunt said: “Patients will be asking why it is that the BMA, who only in May said ‘this deal is a good deal for doctors, a good deal for patients, it’s good for the NHS, it’s good for equality’, are now saying it is such a bad deal that they want to inflict the worst doctors’ strike in NHS history.”
Dr Mark Porter, chair of the BMA council, said the decision to announce five consecutive days of strike from 12 September was made after “long and difficult debates”.
Repeatedly challenged on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme about the level of support for the strike, Porter did not dispute a claim that the council backed five-day strike action by only 16 votes to 14. But he denied that there had been block voting by consultants and GPs to reject the strike.
The latest planned strike action is the first since BMA members rejected the government’s final offer on the contract in a 58% to 42% vote in July, despite a recommendation to accept by the BMA’s leadership.
At the heart of the contract dispute is Hunt’s proposal to change what constitutes “unsocial” hours for which junior doctors can claim extra pay, turning 7am to 5pm on Saturday into a normal working day as part of a Tory manifesto pledge to create a “seven-day NHS”.
There have been five previous walkouts in the dispute, all this year. The longest lasted two consecutive days, and the first all-out strike – including junior doctors working in emergency departments – was held in April. More than 100,000 operations and outpatient appointments have been cancelled so far as a result of industrial action.
Porter said Hunt had left junior doctors with no alternative but to strike again.
He said: “The reason the strikes have been announced is the continued reluctance of the secretary of state for health to do anything other than impose a new contract on junior doctors, a contract in which junior doctors have demonstrated repeatedly that they do not have confidence.”
He also dismissed a claim by Chris Hopson, chief executive of NHS Providers, that the government and employers side had made 73 concessions in the negotiations.
Porter said: “Anyone could count up the number of commas changed and words inserted into a negotiated document containing tens of thousands of words and come up with a number like 73. That number is completely meaningless.”
He added: “It is time to give up the incremental approach of changing a word here or there. That is not going to work as the doctors have comprehensively shown in the latest referendum.”
“The only alternative that junior doctors have been left with is protracted strike action. The reason this dispute has become protracted … is the insistence of the government on moving ahead without agreement.”
Hunt claimed he was ready to continue negotiations.
“The way to solve the honest disagreement is to sit round the table and talk,” he said. “It is cooperation and dialogue and not confrontation and strikes, which is going to cause absolute misery to hundreds of thousands of families up and down this country.”
Hunt claimed there were only two outstanding issues to resolve. “In July they wrote to us and said there were just four outstanding issues of concerns – we have solved two of those four issues to their satisfaction.
“The main sticking point are two issues around pay: Saturday pay and automatic pay rises for part-time workers. Weekend pay rates for doctors are higher than for nurses, police officers, and fire officers. In the 24/7 society that we live in it is very fair and reasonable deal.”
Jeremy Hunt says five-day doctors" strike will be "worst in NHS history"
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