- The strikes, planned for October, November and December was called off
- The move was welcomed by patient groups but some BMA members are unhappy
- Junior doctors committee chair said public feedback caused the decision
- Polls showed they faced losing support if the action went ahead
Vanessa Allen for the Daily Mail
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Militant junior doctors reacted with fury yesterday after a series of planned five-day strikes was called off.
The industrial action planned for October, November and December was suspended after junior doctors’ leaders acknowledged waning support from the public and misgivings from many medics over patient safety.
The move was welcomed by patients’ groups and the Department of Health but hard-line members of the British Medical Association said they felt abandoned by their leaders and called for tougher action.
The industrial action planned for October, November and December was suspended after junior doctors’ leaders acknowledged waning support from the public
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One suggested a ‘Momentum-style group’ – a reference to the Left-wing Labour Party campaign group – could take over the junior doctors’ committee of the BMA and its negotiations with the Government over the imposition of new contracts.
Writing on a social media forum about the contract dispute, Kamran Abid said the current junior doctors’ leaders had shown ‘spineless incompetence’ and called on them to resign.
Alternately, Dr Abid suggested starting a new union or ‘a Momentum-style group to overtake and utilise the mechanisms available to the current BMA. A kind of union-within-a-union’.
Dr Ellen McCourt, chair of the committee, said the strikes were suspended ‘in light of feedback from doctors, patients and the public, and following a passionate, thoughtful and wide-ranging debate amongst junior doctors’.
She said ‘a range of other actions’ were being planned to resist the new contracts, saying: ‘Our fight does not end here.’
Dr Ellen McCourt, chair of the BMA’s junior doctors committee, said the strikes were suspended ‘in light of feedback from doctors, patients and the public
Dr McCourt, 32, said: ‘We still oppose the imposition of the contract and are now planning a range of other actions in order to resist it, but patient safety is doctors’ primary concern and so it is right that we listen and respond to concerns about the ability of the NHS to maintain a safe service.’
Doctors are angry about changes that would increase basic salary but reduce weekend pay, as part of the Government’s pledge to provide a seven-day NHS.
The three planned walkouts would have meant the cancellation of around 100,000 operations and delays to a million hospital appointments.
Recent polls found junior doctors risked losing public support if they went ahead with the five-day strikes, following warnings from senior doctors and the General Medical Council that they risked patient safety.
Six shorter strikes have already taken place during the lengthy dispute, causing disruption to hundreds of thousands of patients.
Dr McCourt faced personal criticism from medics writing on the junior doctors contract forum on Facebook.
Dr McCourt faced personal criticism from medics writing on the junior doctors contract forum on Facebook
One, Gareth Martel, wrote: ‘You and your colleagues are an absolute disgrace and have abandoned a whole generation of trainees, crippled the BMA for any sort of future negotiations and guaranteed a real downturn in future applications for medicine.
‘If you have any integrity you will do the right thing and resign, allowing someone else to try to rebuild.’
Other doctors on the forum welcomed the decision to call off the strikes.
Ian Rudd wrote: ‘The sensible majority of junior doctors are not prepared to engage in prolonged strike action without any prospect of this leading to an improvement to the contract that is on the table.’
Elsewhere, Katherine Murphy, chief executive of the Patients Association, said: ‘We are delighted that the BMA have listened to the fears of patients and the public and called off the planned industrial action.
The move was welcomed by patients’ groups and the Department of Health but hard-line members of the BMA said they felt abandoned by their leaders and called for tougher action
‘It will be a huge relief to thousands of patients who have been worrying about when their surgery or hospital appointment would be re-arranged, in light of the strikes announced last month.’
She added: ‘I hope that the Department of Health show willingness to meet with the BMA and do what they can to address doctors’ working conditions and respond to their concerns around patient safety.’
Professor Neena Modi, president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, said: ‘The country can be proud of the junior doctors’ mature, compassionate and principled determination during this damaging dispute.’
A Department of Health spokeswoman said: ‘The best way to rebuild trust now is for industrial action to be called off permanently in the interests of patients – and we urge the BMA to do so.’
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