Junior doctors suspend strike plans due to "patient safety" concerns

Junior doctors have suspended plans to go on a series of five-day strikes to protest against changes to their contracts after a “vigorous debate” following a change in leadership.

The British Medical Association’s junior doctors committee (JDC) said it would not go ahead with the industrial action, but was “planning other actions over the coming weeks”.

The decision follows a challenge to the leadership of Dr Ellen McCourt, chairwoman of the committee, by doctors from Justice for Health.

McCourt fought off the challengers but there were changes to other members of the junior doctors leadership, who held a summit on Saturday to discuss their new strategy.

“After a vigorous, passionate, thoughtful and wide-ranging debate this afternoon, the JDC has decided to suspend industrial action while planning other actions over the coming weeks,” the committee said in a statement.

The decision was prompted by “feedback from members from every region in England, as well as the views of the wider profession, patients and the public in considering the next steps on the dispute”.

“Our primary consideration in coming to this decision has been our overriding concern about patient safety, the care we provide every day and the ability of the health service to deliver this care,” it added.

“To be absolutely clear, the JDC still opposes the implementation of the contract … The past few months have been difficult and frustrating and we know that members are anxious for information and practical support.”

Junior doctors have been in a long-running dispute with the government over its decision to change their contracts to make it cheaper for the NHS to provide weekend cover.

The health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, decided to impose the new contract on junior doctors, five of whom last week sought to have the decision overturned in the high court. Lord Justice Green’s ruling on that is due on Wednesday.

Union sources say hundreds of trainee medics voicing their concern about the proposed walkouts had led to serious fears that strike turnout would be poor and that the BMA would end up divided, weakened and lowered in public esteem as a result of the stoppages.

Many junior doctors were also concerned that the long duration of the planned strike would put patients’ safety at risk and risk a backlash from the public if anything untoward happened in a hospital while they were protesting outside. Medics have also voiced confusion about the objectives of the stoppages, given that the union’s leadership backed in the early summer the new contract they had negotiated, only to see grassroots juniors reject the improved terms and conditions by 58% to 42%.

McCourt was elected as interim chair after the former leader, Johann Malawana, resigned after 58% of junior doctors rejected a compromise contract.

One senior BMA official said: “Junior doctors don’t want to put patients at risk and don’t want to go ahead with a five-day strike. Quite a few don’t want any more strike action at all. Even the few JDC members who still think that they can’t give up totally wanted the 5-day strike scaled down.

“Junior doctors don’t have the heart or the stomach for this anymore. They don’t see the point of industrial action. They feel let down and blame both Jeremy Hunt and the BMA equally.”

There is also mounting anger and confusion among junior doctors at what many see as the BMA’s lack of clear strategy in first electing to hold all-out stoppages of unprecedented duration without defining what their purpose was.

The Department of Health welcomed the suspension of the strikes, saying: “The best way to rebuild trust now is for industrial action to be called off permanently in the interests of patients – and we urge the BMA to do so.”

The strike action was originally planned for this month, but the first five-day walkout was cancelled after opposition from other members of the medical profession.

Opposition to the planned strikes came from the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, which represents all the doctors’ professional bodies.

Junior doctors suspend strike plans due to "patient safety" concerns

Junior doctors suspend planned five-day strike in September

Junior doctors have called off the first of their planned series of five-day strikes after growing alarm from senior doctors and NHS leaders that the action could endanger patients.

In a statement on Monday afternoon, Dr Ellen McCourt, the chair of the British Medical association’s junior doctors committee, said that the doctors’ union was “suspending the industrial action planned for the week of 12 September”.

McCourt told Jeremy hunt, the health secretary, that he now had a month to stop the imposition of the new contract that has sparked such anger among trainee medics in England over the last year. It is due to start being implemented from early October.

However, the BMA is still planning to stage three other five-day- walkouts, in October, November and December, if Hunt does not respond positively.

However, it is unclear what will happen next after the Department of Health’s initial reaction to the call-off did not indicate if Hunt would do what the BMA are urging him to do and suspend the planned imposition of the contract.

A DoH spokesman said only that: “The public will be relieved that the BMA has decided to call off the first phase of these unprecedented strikes, so this is welcome news. But if the BMA were really serious about patient safety, they would immediately cancel their remaining plans for industrial action which, as the GMC says, will only cause patients to suffer.”

Hunt may clarify his position later on Monday, though, when he makes a statement in the Commons on the long-running dispute.

Mc Court added that the BMA decided to call off next week’s planned action, which saw the BMA being heavily criticised by many medical groups including the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, to ensure that safety of care was maintained.

“Patient safety remains doctors’ primary concern. For the first time in this dispute NHS England have told us that a service under such pressure cannot cope with the notice period for industrial action given,” she said. “We have also listened to the concerns of working doctors, patient groups and the public.”

It comes hours after the General Medical Council, which regulates doctors, warned that “harm and suffering to patients” would inevitably result from the action.

The walkouts were due to include even life-or-death areas of care in hospitals such as A&E, surgery, intensive care and maternity services. An estimated 125,000 planned operations were set to be cancelled as another consequence, leading to fears that patients would suffer pain and distress as hospitals would take months to clear the backlog.

The BMA’s move may be a belated attempt to maintain the profession’s year-long unity over the new junior doctors’ contract, which shattered last week with many leading doctors criticising the intended strikes as disproportionate and likely to threaten patient safety. Junior doctors may also be hoping to keep the public on their side in their bitter dispute with Hunt.

They continued to enjoy around 60% public backing despite the eight days of strikes they staged between January and May in pursuit of their claim that the new contract for England’s 54,000 doctors below the level of consultant was unsafe and unfair.

Junior doctors suspend planned five-day strike in September

House Office urged to suspend Nigerian family"s deportation in excess of FGM fears

Afusat Saliu says that her daughters, aged a single and 3, faced getting mutilated if the family is forced to return to Nigeria. Photograph: Anj Handa/PA

The Home Workplace is facing calls to suspend the deportation of a mom who fears her two youthful daughters will grow to be victims of female genital mutilation (FGM) if they go back to Nigeria, soon after an expert came forward to insist that the threat is genuine.

Lawyers for Afusat Saliu, who is herself a victim of the practice, are launching a late bid to persuade immigration officials to take the evidence of the Nigerian-born FGM expert Yemi Fagborun into account.

Fagborun told the Guardian she needed to speak to the Uk Border Agency (UKBA) on behalf of the Saliu family to persuade officials of the danger in sending them to Nigeria.

“My dread is for the two kids, who are at chance. Folks come right here for protection and we are sending them back and saying ‘we don’t care what is occurring to you’. It is not excellent adequate. That is what is happening right here. She came for safety and it is not excellent ample,” Fagborun stated.

Bhumika Parmar, Saliu’s lawyer, confirmed that she was trying to halt the deportation so the possibly vital proof could be heard.

Saliu and her daughters, 3-year-outdated Basirat and a single-12 months-old Rashidat, had been due to be deported to Nigeria on Thursday night. They unsuccessfully argued that they ought to remain because the youngsters faced currently being mutilated and Afusat forcibly married at the insistence of their extended loved ones.

They have been, even so, given a temporary reprieve hours before their flight, right after claims that the Home Workplace – of which UKBA is a portion – did not give the requisite discover.

Fagborun attacked the British government for concurrently taking the lead in the international battle against FGM and deporting men and women she insisted have been at danger of it.

“This is not sending a great signal out and it is going to make our work much, considerably much more difficult. The House Workplace does not believe her that there is a real threat, but I was in Nigeria in March and it is,” she mentioned.

“Men and women at danger of FGM soon after deportation need to be offered the same standing as individuals at risk of domestic violence. It is needed to safeguard these young women.”

A House Workplace spokesman explained the department did not comment on personal circumstances.

House Office urged to suspend Nigerian family"s deportation in excess of FGM fears