Junior Doctors forced to strike by Hunt's intransigence

Junior doctors will face their new assignments on the picket line with strong resolve but with heavy hearts. They did not want this strike but the NHS Employers, dancing to the tune of Jeremy Hunt and the Conservative Cabinet, have failed to recognise that this is a protest against the persistent and continuous squeeze on the NHS, the brunt of which is borne by front line staff, including junior doctors as they try to maintain a good service to patients. Already over 80% of doctors work unpaid overtime as they try to complete their rostered tasks and deal with emergencies. 30% report workplace stress and the main organisation providing counselling support for doctors says that their clientele is getting younger and younger. Doctors, both in hospital and in general practice, are getting driven away from the NHS - and it can't exist without them. The leakage of nursing and medical staff into agency and locum work is a warning symptom of how further privatisation could happen.

Hunt is trying to introduce a 7 day NHS on the basis of ropey evidence and within a tight financial envelope which will not bear the strain. The 7 day NHS may be a manifesto pledge but even manifestos have to be treated with realism. The public does want proper safeguarding of their health, both within hospital and outside, but there are few signs that it wants or expects the NHS as a whole to function fully for 7 days, especially if this eventually means a dilution of services during the week.

Hunt wants to put doctors working conditions firmly in the grasp of the management of hospital Trusts, many of which are either in desperate financial straits or retain control only by squeezing their staff till they have no energy left. Doctors want to retain some control over their own conditions and not find that they are being used as elastoplast to cover up management inadequacies, shortages of staff, and financial crises. While it is reasonable to ask staff help organisations adapt to new conditions, it is not reasonable to force staff on whose decisions lives depend, to become overstretched and undervalued. Doctors are striking against what for many would be a cut in pay and a worsening in conditions. They are also striking because the government position on safety both for patients and practitioners lacks both detail and conviction.

Any inconvenience to patients is outweighed by the overall consequences for the NHS if the doctors lose their action and Hunt imposes a new contract. It is vital that the public speaks out in favour of the doctors and rejects the smears and insinuations being peddled by the government and much of the right wing press.