Bytheway...Whyjuniordoctorsmayhaveapoint

THE open war between junior hospital doctors and the Government has escalated. Whether or not Wednesday’s strike goes ahead (at the time of going to press this still looked likely), things have got nastier, with Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt at the weekend accusing the British Medical Association of being ‘totally irresponsible’ in its handling of the dispute.

The BMA in its turn has said he’s been ‘alienating a generation’ of junior doctors. The problem as I see it is that neither side is being completely open.

The NHS and the Department of Health insist the dispute is about patient safety and the need to provide a seven-day service. Junior doctors also insist a key issue is patient safety.

Of course, the Government’s prime interest is in cost cutting. Meanwhile, junior doctors want to be assured that, among other things, their working conditions won’t worsen. Morale among juniors is lower than ever and, without going into the detail, I am deeply respectful of the reasons for their position.

I also know how far doctors must feel pushed into a corner in order to take industrial action. I was a junior hospital doctor in the Seventies and we considered going on strike, although drew back from the brink when we won an agreement to reduce our on-call commitment from alternate nights and weekends to a one in three nights rota and an 88-hour week.

Working longer hours than this would entitle us to overtime payment, although at just a third of the usual hourly rate.

Nevertheless, we lumped it, as our loyalty was strong, not to the Government or the NHS, but to our ‘firm’ — this was led by two consultants and consisted of housemen (the most junior doctor), senior house officers, registrars and senior registrars (just below consultant level). It was a tight and powerful training group.

All that has been vaporised by politicians, leading to an explosion in manager numbers. The result was that doctors no longer run their own units and have become mere cogs in the machine. Junior doctors feel impotent, driven into a corner by management and the Department of Health, and are forced to use the only negotiating tool available: strike action.

The sad irony is that politicians know almost nothing about healthcare and running a service. Yet a junior hospital doctor does know a thing or two — seeing the waste, inefficiency and chaos on a daily basis. It’s time, as I’ve said so often, to put the doctors back in charge.

Reluctantly, I support the junior doctors’ action. But what a mess.