Doctors told: strike will harm patients
Hunt makes last-minute appeal as he warns walk-out will force casualty wards to close
ACCIDENT and Emergency departments could be forced to close and thousands of operations will have to be cancelled because of a wave of unprecedented strikes by junior doctors, the Health Secretary has warned.
Jeremy Hunt said in an interview with The Sunday Telegraph that patients will be put at risk because doctors are “basically saying ‘we won’t be there for you in life-threatening situations’ ”. There is no guarantee that every patient will be kept safe, he added.
He also accused “some elements” of the British Medical Association (BMA), the doctors’ union, of using the strikes as a “political opportunity to bash a Tory government that they hate”.
Mr Hunt said that 4,000 operations will be cancelled when up to 45,000 junior doctors withdraw care for all but emergencies when they strike on Tuesday for 24 hours.
This week’s action is the first of three planned days of strikes, which will culminate on Feb 10 with the first complete walkout of junior doctors in NHS history. With junior doctors refusing even to carry out emergency care on that day, Mr Hunt warned that A&E departments could be forced to close.
The dispute has erupted over government attempts to change hospital doctors’ contracts to create a full sevenday service and reduce weekend deaths. It is offering a basic salary rise of 11 per cent to compensate for reduced weekend overtime, but doctors insist this will amount to a pay cut.
Mr Hunt said the Government is now going through the “exhaustive process” of contacting every A&E department to establish whether they will have enough staff to stay open.
The strikes come as NHS hospitals across the country have issued “black alerts” due to immense pressure, with some already turning away patients.
“I know that many hospitals will ask consultants and other staff to step in for that day,” said Mr Hunt. “But we also have to be honest that hospitals are stretched at the moment.
“We are now going through an exhaustive process with every hospital in the country to try to understand which are the hospitals that might struggle to keep their A&E departments open if junior doctors withdraw their labour.
“Frankly, it is the busiest time of the year for hospitals right now. The last thing I want to be doing is diverting precious management resource into trying to assess how they will keep their patients safe if junior doctors don’t turn up for work.”
Mr Hunt urged doctors to reconsider: “Doctors do have a right to strike, but I just urge all doctors to work really closely with us to make sure that whatever decision they take, their patients aren’t put at risk.”
Aware of claims that the BMA’s council contains several Labour supporters and that a leading figure behind the strikes had likened Conservative policies to Nazi propaganda, Mr Hunt said: “Of course it’s a concern if some elements within the BMA are seeing this as a political opportunity to bash a Tory government that they hate.”
The BMA has insisted it is an “apolitical organisation” and that the strikes were called for by junior doctors themselves and “demonstrate the strength of feeling amongst the profession against government proposals that are unsafe and unfair”.