By the way...Doctors are taking a paycut–and you’ll suffer

DESPERATE to fulfil an election pledge to give the nation an NHS that supplies normal routine services on a seven-day basis, the Government has entered into a battle with junior hospital doctors, the skilled professionals upon which the functioning of the health service depends.

With cunning and dishonesty, the Government has used the statistic that patients admitted to hospital at weekends have an increased risk of death to insist that there is a full complement of staff on a seven-day basis.

They are, however, using statistics gleaned from studies on seriously ill patients — those who are admitted as emergencies — to justify the complete weekend staffing, which would enable routine work to take place on Saturdays and Sundays. Need to see a dermatologist? No need to miss work. Routine glaucoma check-up? Come in on Saturday before football.

In order to do this without additional funding, Jeremy Hunt is rewriting the employment contracts of junior doctors in England. Junior doctors are those below consultant grade.

The intention is to redefine what constitutes out-of-hours work — previously paid at a higher rate. The plan is that evenings and Saturdays will now be paid at the same daily rate as weekdays.

The cunning goes further: there is a small pay rise for the standard rate, and a small pay rise for what little remains of out-of-hours duties (after 10pm on weekdays and Sundays, as I understand it), which makes it look as if the junior doctors are in opposition to the plans despite being offered more money. In fact, by reclassifying weekends as weekdays, most doctors will end up with a pay cut of between 15 and 40 per cent.

Doctors, with a commitment to their vocation, have little wish to strike. Instead, young doctors with mortgages and families will look elsewhere, to Wales or Scotland, or maybe Australia or New Zealand. Why else are thousands applying for certification from the General Medical Council to enable them to emigrate?

The Government is shooting itself in the foot by alienating junior doctors, at a time when they cannot recruit A& E consultants, psychiatrists, GPs, or intensive care specialists at consultant level.

And patients will suffer as the service fails. The Government must rethink.