Thousands of doctors march over ‘cuts’

THOUSANDS of junior doctors took to the streets of Britain yesterday to protest against changes to their contracts, as the prospect of strike action moved closer.

The marches came as a British Medical Association spokesman issued a walk-out warning, saying: ‘We are preparing to ballot our members on industrial action if the threat of contract imposition is not lifted.’

The junior doctors marched through London, Nottingham and Belfast, hitting back at earlier claims by Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt that they had been ‘misled’ by the BMA over the contract proposals.

The doctors claim the new contract will undermine patient safety by taking away punitive financial penalties for hospitals that make doctors work too many hours.

Yesterday morning, Mr Hunt said the doctors’ union had ‘misrepresented the Government’s position’ and ‘caused a huge amount of anger unnecessarily’. ‘We don’t want to cut the pay going to junior doctors,’ he told the BBC.

‘We do want to change the pay structures that force hospitals to roster three times less medical cover at weekends.’

Mr Hunt wants to raise doctors’ basic pay – but also turn weekend evenings from 7-10pm and Saturdays into ‘plain time working’ for which they would not be paid an anti-social hours supplement.

He sees the changes as crucial to boosting staffing levels outside ‘office hours’ and cutting deaths among patients admitted at weekends.

Although contracts are negotiated separately in Scotland, doctors north of the Border are also represented by the BMA.

Any deals struck in England are likely to impact on pay in Scotland.