[Tuesday 9 February]
Keep Our NHS Public congratulates the junior doctors on their stand in favour of patient safety and against this irresponsible government, and will continue to support them for as long as it takes.
It’s now clear that Jeremy Hunt has personally intervened into the junior doctors dispute, to veto a possible agreement. He has renewed threats to impose a contract without agreement, making any negotiations irrelevant.
This makes it clear that the government wants a confrontation, and wants nothing less than the defeat of the BMA, as a prelude to similar moves to worsen to pay and conditions of a million other NHS staff. All the talk of 7 day working and hospital safety at weekends, based on phony figures and deliberate falsifications by Mr Hunt of published research, is simply a smokescreen.
Dr John Lister, Secretary of Keep Our NHS Public, said:
“The government has all the way through tried falsely to depict the dispute as one over pay, despite the fact that the junior doctors’ concern is safety – in maintaining staffing levels during the week, and preventing excessive working hours which put patient care at risk.
“The threat to impose the contract some time this month means Hunt, Cameron and other ministers are willing to wreck any prospect of restoring the morale of junior doctors, and drive more bright and dedicated junior doctors overseas as they wreck what was the health care system in the world.”
[Ends]
Editors’ Notes
Keep Our NHS Public was formed in 2005 and has a broad-based, public membership. There are 46 local groups, plus a national association. It has the explicit aim of countering marketisation [1,2] and privatisation of the NHS by campaigning for a publicly funded, publicly provided and publicly accountable NHS, available to all on the basis of clinical need. It is opposed to cuts in service which run counter to these principles. Further details: www.keepournhspublic.com
KONP’s Campaigns and Press Officer is Alan Taman:
07870 757 309
Twitter: https://twitter.com/keepnhspublic
Facebook: Keep-Our-NHS-Public
[1] Davis, J., Lister, J. and Wrigely, D. (2015) NHS For Sale. London: Merlin Press.
Leys, C. and Player, S. (2011) The Plot Against the NHS. Pontypool: Merlin
Lister, J. (2008) The NHS After 60: For Patients or Profits? London: Middlesex University Press
Owen, D. (2014) The Health of the Nation: The NHS in Peril. York: Methuen, Chapter 4.
Player, S. (2013) ‘Ready for market’. In NHS SOS ed by Davis, J. and Tallis, R. London: Oneworld, pp.38-61.
[2] The belief that ‘competition is always best’ does not work when applied to healthcare. A comprehensive and universal health service is best funded by public donation, which has been shown to be far more efficient overall than private-insurance healthcare models
[Davis, J., Lister, J. and Wrigley, D. (2015) NHS For Sale. London: Merlin Press. Chapters 2 and 8.
Lister, J. (2013) Health Policy Reform: global health versus private profit. Libri: Faringdon.
Pollock, A. and Price, D. (2013) In NHS SOS, ed by Davis, J. and Tallis, R. Oneworld: London, 174.]
Leave a Reply