Re: Margaret McCartney: Pity the NHS—Jeremy Hunt has chosen the nuclear option
Whilst Margaret McCartney is quite correct in her analysis she misses the other half of the battle. True, the Junior Doctors are under attack by Jeremy Hunt but they have been under insidious attack for many years. To illustrate this point might I compare and contrast the Junior Doctor's lot with that of other workers.
A Junior Doctor starts on a salary of roughly £25,000 pa. A tube driver is on about £55,000 pa. A new, graduate entrant banker will also start on £55,000. Jeremy Hunt is not to blame for this disparity. In my youth, when working a weekend shift at a third of my normal rate, (because I was "only on-call", I used to console myself with the thought that the claening lady was earning more per hour than I was. This was not Jeremy Hunt's doing.)
A Junior Doctor, in my youth back in the 1980's and '90's worked between 72 hours in a good week to 123 hours every 3rd week. I see that, under new proposals, the working week for Junior Doctors is to be reduced from 90 to a maximum of 72 hours a week. These ridiculous hours plagued Junior Doctors long before Jeremy Hunt arrived in Parliament let alone became the Secretary of State for Health.
The workload has steadily increased over the years such that Juniors and Seniors are having to manage a vastly increased case load. GPs have been badly hit by mountainous work loads to the point that they are seeking to retire early or move to New Zealand and Australia. This migration started long before Jeremy Hunt arrived. When I was a GP Trainee back in 1990, we would see 15 to 20 patients in the morning, floowed by a coffee break when we would do repeat prescriptions and off then to see 4 or 5 home visits. My current GP is expected to see 16 home visits. The work load has been steadily escalating and this started long before Jeremy Hunt arrived.
It is all very well for Margaret to villify the villain of the piece. I am sure we all chuckled at the Matt cartoon of the First Aid class in which the nurse has her hands around the throat of the manikin and explains to the class how they should first place their hands around Jeremy Hunt's neck. And some of the placards have been suitably amusing. But I would argue that the real villain of the piece is not Jeremy Hunt but our own, inadequate, timorous BMA.
No other trade union would allow its members to work 120+ hours a week. No other trade union would hail it as a victory that it was reducing hours to "only" 72 hours a week! And please remember that it wasn't the BMA that reduced these dangerous hours we used to work. It was the EWTD. Where was our trade union? After 5 years at University to learn our profession, why are we not earning as much as a train driver or a factory worker or a new entrant banker? What has the BMA been doing all these years?
And now this fiasco! The BMA have lead the troops up to the top of the hill and now what. Jeremy Hunt knows that the BMA haven't got the nerve to strike. They are left in a dither from a situation that was entirely foreseeable.
It is not just the Junior Doctors, but all segments of the profession that have been failed by the BMA. If the BMA had done it's job, like its counterpart in New Zealand, we too could have had a happy and contented workforce and a well funded NHS. Instead we have demoralised doctors seeking early retirement, emmigration, leaving the NHS or just leaving the profession.
Rapid Response:
Re: Margaret McCartney: Pity the NHS—Jeremy Hunt has chosen the nuclear option
Whilst Margaret McCartney is quite correct in her analysis she misses the other half of the battle. True, the Junior Doctors are under attack by Jeremy Hunt but they have been under insidious attack for many years. To illustrate this point might I compare and contrast the Junior Doctor's lot with that of other workers.
A Junior Doctor starts on a salary of roughly £25,000 pa. A tube driver is on about £55,000 pa. A new, graduate entrant banker will also start on £55,000. Jeremy Hunt is not to blame for this disparity. In my youth, when working a weekend shift at a third of my normal rate, (because I was "only on-call", I used to console myself with the thought that the claening lady was earning more per hour than I was. This was not Jeremy Hunt's doing.)
A Junior Doctor, in my youth back in the 1980's and '90's worked between 72 hours in a good week to 123 hours every 3rd week. I see that, under new proposals, the working week for Junior Doctors is to be reduced from 90 to a maximum of 72 hours a week. These ridiculous hours plagued Junior Doctors long before Jeremy Hunt arrived in Parliament let alone became the Secretary of State for Health.
The workload has steadily increased over the years such that Juniors and Seniors are having to manage a vastly increased case load. GPs have been badly hit by mountainous work loads to the point that they are seeking to retire early or move to New Zealand and Australia. This migration started long before Jeremy Hunt arrived. When I was a GP Trainee back in 1990, we would see 15 to 20 patients in the morning, floowed by a coffee break when we would do repeat prescriptions and off then to see 4 or 5 home visits. My current GP is expected to see 16 home visits. The work load has been steadily escalating and this started long before Jeremy Hunt arrived.
It is all very well for Margaret to villify the villain of the piece. I am sure we all chuckled at the Matt cartoon of the First Aid class in which the nurse has her hands around the throat of the manikin and explains to the class how they should first place their hands around Jeremy Hunt's neck. And some of the placards have been suitably amusing. But I would argue that the real villain of the piece is not Jeremy Hunt but our own, inadequate, timorous BMA.
No other trade union would allow its members to work 120+ hours a week. No other trade union would hail it as a victory that it was reducing hours to "only" 72 hours a week! And please remember that it wasn't the BMA that reduced these dangerous hours we used to work. It was the EWTD. Where was our trade union? After 5 years at University to learn our profession, why are we not earning as much as a train driver or a factory worker or a new entrant banker? What has the BMA been doing all these years?
And now this fiasco! The BMA have lead the troops up to the top of the hill and now what. Jeremy Hunt knows that the BMA haven't got the nerve to strike. They are left in a dither from a situation that was entirely foreseeable.
It is not just the Junior Doctors, but all segments of the profession that have been failed by the BMA. If the BMA had done it's job, like its counterpart in New Zealand, we too could have had a happy and contented workforce and a well funded NHS. Instead we have demoralised doctors seeking early retirement, emmigration, leaving the NHS or just leaving the profession.
Competing interests: No competing interests