You’ve never had it so good, May tells doctors
We’re not backing down, PM warns the BMA militants as they plan crippling strikes
THERESA May yesterday accused striking junior doctors of ‘playing politics’ with patients’ lives, and told them they’ve never had it so good.
In a sign of intent, the Prime Minister intervened to make it clear the Government will not back down against the BMA’s militant leaders on the ‘crucial’ new contract for junior doctors.
Mrs May also brushed aside calls from junior doctors and Labour for Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt to be sacked.
The move came as Labour further politicised the dispute by indicating it will back the strike, with frontbenchers joining picket lines.
Downing Street sources said Mr Hunt had the Prime Minister’s full backing in imposing the new contract, which is seen as vital in making a reality of the Tories’ manifesto pledge to create a seven-day NHS.
David Cameron left Mr Hunt to lead the charge against striking doctors, but Mrs May moved quickly to make it clear she will not
‘BMA should put patients first’
yield to the militants running the BMA. During a visit to the Jaguar Land Rover assembly plant in Solihull, she said: ‘Jeremy has been an excellent Health Secretary, he is an excellent Health Secretary and this deal is about a deal that is safe for patients and I think it’s crucial.
‘If you look at what we’re doing as a Government with the NHS – we’ve got record levels of funding into the NHS, we’ve got more doctors now in the NHS than we’ve seen in its history and this is a deal that is safe for patients. The Government is putting patients first – the BMA should be putting patients first, not playing politics.’
The BMA retaliated last night by announcing a fresh wave of strikes, including another walkout on October 5 – the day Mrs May makes her first keynote speech to the Conservative Party conference as PM.
Meanwhile, Labour’s Left-wing leadership backed the strike plans, despite the massive disruption they will cause to patients.
Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell said he and other Labour front- benchers would join doctors on the picket line this month.
Speaking at a rally in Ealing, west London, he added: ‘We will be supporting them and we are supporting them, because we believe they have a just cause.’
Labour leadership contender Owen Smith called for Mr Hunt to be sacked for losing the confidence of junior doctors. He described Mr Hunt as ‘the worst Health Secretary in history’, adding: ‘It is simply astounding that on the day Theresa May walked into No 10 one of the first decisions she made was to keep Jeremy Hunt in post.’
Shadow Health Secretary Diane Abbott accused ministers of treating striking doctors like ‘the enemy within’. She added: ‘The Tories talk about a seven-day NHS, but they are causing five-day strikes.’
Earlier Mr Hunt likened himself to the late Labour Cabinet minister Nye Bevan, seen as the architect of the NHS, who also suffered bitter disputes with the BMA. ‘ Health secretaries are never very popular,’ he said. Miss Abbott branded the comparison ‘ridiculous’.
Inside the Department of Health there was fury about the decision by the BMA to launch the most damaging strikes in the history of the NHS over a contract it had supported just months ago.
Health sources pointed out that patients’ groups were opposed to the strike – and warned that junior doctors, long seen as some of the angels of the public sector, risked tarnishing their image with the public for ever.
The decision to impose the new contract was taken only after junior doctors rejected a deal agreed by Mr Hunt and the BMA. The sources said it was difficult to negotiate with the BMA if it could not deliver its members. They added there was no possibility that Mr Hunt would abandon plans to impose the contract.
THROUGHOUT their reckless campaign of industrial action against a new NHS contract, junior doctors have claimed their primary motive was to protect patient safety. Yesterday that claim was proved beyond doubt to be a lie.
By announcing a rolling programme of five-day strikes – one per month for the rest of the year – they are deliberately trying to bring chaos to hospitals.
This will certainly mean enormous pain and suffering as hundreds of thousands of operations are cancelled and it’s perfectly likely people will die. And for what? The new contract guarantees reduced hours and better average pay. The only real issue now is how frequently junior doctors should have to work weekends and how much extra they should get for doing so.
For all their leaders’ cant about defending the NHS and protecting patients, these strikes are about money – and petty politics.
But while the Left-wing junior doctors committee of the British Medical Association urges its members to ever greater militancy, there are signs that wiser counsel may yet prevail. The full BMA council voted only narrowly to support the strike, with GPs and consultants said to be largely against. And in a poll of junior doctors taken in June, just 35.5 per cent were in favour of a total strike. Meanwhile, Theresa May indicated yesterday that the Government will not back down, so this looks like a dispute that’s ultimately bound to be lost.
But what damage will be caused before it does? At the moment, junior doctors are almost universally admired. If patients begin to die as a direct result of their irresponsibility, they may soon see that reputation shattered beyond repair.