How will striking make patients safe?

WHEN the junior doctors’ dispute began, there was a measure of sympathy for the strikers. For though the new contract promised to reduce their maximum hours and increase basic pay by 13 per cent, it also meant more antisocial shifts. Some may even have believed the BMA union leaders’ claim that their chief concern was about patients’ safety.

Yet with every appointment cancelled or operation postponed, sympathy is draining away. So, too, is any belief that the strikers are interested in anything but hard cash and avoiding weekend work (which millions in other occupations, from bus drivers to shopworkers and journalists, do without fuss).

Indeed, this week’s call for a wave of 48-hour strikes exposes the rank hypocrisy of the BMA militants’ talk about safety.

For if the walkouts go ahead, tens of thousands more operations will be cancelled. Inevitably, this will cause prolonged suffering and, yes, acute danger to patients.

And all for what? There is simply not enough cash in the public purse for Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt to reverse his decision to impose the new contracts, strikes or no strikes.

Meanwhile, the case for a seven- day health service – the object of the deal – grows ever stronger.

Indeed, yesterday David Cameron cited research finding that every year around 11,000 more patients die if they are admitted to hospital between Fridays and Mondays, compared with other days of the week. That’s 5,000 more than Mr Hunt had previously maintained. True, the hours worked by junior doctors are a long- running scandal (though the new contracts should ease the burden). But so, too, are these dramatically higher death rates caused by reduced services at weekends.

If doctors wish to retain the high respect due to their profession, they will ignore the BMA militants’ politically motivated strike call – and cooperate in providing a health service fit for a civilised nation.