Would you support the doctors' strike.

Anyone remember Andrew Mitchell? His daughter is a junior doctor, and wants Hunt to be sacked.

Yes she was right,I made my comment on her talking before she calmed down and debated sensible , she and Farage are not best of friends

Leanne was right about the tax, though. Why do we blame immigrants for everything, when it's the rich who are to blame for not paying their taxes?

It was a great question , wish Farage and Leanne would talk less, UKIP is in a mess in Wales, in party fighting

A brilliant first question on QT.
Who's wrong, Jeremy Hunt or thousands of doctors?
Last question on the subject, do the Tories just want to spread the deaths throughout the week rather than at the weekends?

You might get a bigger population, too, Anniebach, if our NHS goes down the pan.

How can Hunt say he wants more work with no more doctors and no more money to pay them?
Doesn't he realise we're not China? I know he thinks the low paid should work harder for the same money, like the Chinese, but he forgets that doctors can move. Junior doctors change contracts every year.
Try not to be ill this year.

By the way, linnie, I was in hospital having an aortic dissection when the new NHSE came into being. The staff thought it only entailed changing the headed notepaper.

Hunt would be moved in days if he failed to keep to the scrip, this government fights everything with instilling fear in the public doesn't it?

We certaintly need more doctors here Jen .

X posted

Yes, indeed he did write a chapter on the NHS. It's irrelevant. This government has an agenda...

I agree about the privatisation, but he is the figurehead that pulls the strings.
Lansley was not strong enough to carry it through.

However, I have noticed that some of the signatories to the letter telling Hunt to impose the contract are now retracting their support. They thought the doctors would quietly go back to work. They were wrong.

Over 20,000 signatures now, 6000 in the last hour.

DJ, I truly believe that this is just the tip of the iceberg. He is merely a figurehead. My guess is that they will push on with this, then hey presto, will announce that the NHS is unworkable and needs to be privatised.... I'm not sure that many ministers will be too worried by that , as they won't use the NHS

Hunt wrote the book about it.

I believe it is simplistic to blame Hunt alone. He is part of the machine. If it wasn't him, they would soon find someone else to fill his boots. This government fills me with fear

nhap.org/jeremy-hunts-imposition-of-the-highly-controversial-and-unpopular-junior-contract-is-a-grave-error-of-judgement/

Clive Peedell knows what he is saying. He is a cancer surgeon at Middlesbrough hospital.
However, Annie, you will not have shortage of junior doctors in Wales. Scotland is advertising for them to move there as well, although many will go to Australasia.
Hunt seems to forget that doctors are highly intelligent, and have transferable skills.

Hunt is a disgrace , he keeps playing the saviour of the sick, his compassion / lies pour out like treacle

petition.parliament.uk/petitions/110667?reveal_response=yes#response-threshold

This is unbelievable.
It's a petition to ask Hunt to debate the junior doctors contract on television.
The government response actually states that they recognise that junior doctors work really hard over seven days.
If that is the case, why does Hunt have to impose a new contract that the doctors do not want on them?
If they recognise that they already do what they want, why all the fuss?
It's political. That's the only answer.

Excellent post Candelle. We can come up with as many solutions as there are politicians to dream them but without more and better paid staff we will not make any of them work. Whips and tridents, which seems to be there chosen method will destroy all that has been built up and then we will see how "safe" the NHS was in Tory hands.

You are quite right about after the JDs it will be the GPs and at the same time the teachers, policemen, etc.

I have no idea when the government will learn to value people and what they do - I just hope it isn't too late. I cannot believe those who go to Australia, etc., will ever come back.

It is time for Hunt to be taken out of the equation then there may be some hope of moving forward.

www.opendemocracy.net/ournhs/paul-hobday/seven-things-private-healthcare-insurance-adverts-wont-tell-you

This explains how private health insurance works.

www.onmedica.com/NewsArticle.aspx?id=0000f08a-e442-4842-868d-c9761df650a0

GPs are really in trouble. Not enough of them. Only 25% of doctors are GPs now, when it was 36% twenty years ago. Yet GPs are supposed to be the first point of contact.

Interesting post Candelle 0 indeed we are 1000s of GPs short in the Uk so no wonder they are having to work an unreasonable amount.
Australia seems to have a (roughly) 50:50 health care system, rather than an NHS like us, so the huge amount of private practice probably pushes up salaries in the public hospitals. Salaries tend to be higher for everyone there if you do a comparison on currency exchange. However cost of living seems to be higher (according to family who live there). Clothes, food, cars, books etc seem much more expensive and of course many families are paying a big dollop of health insurance every month.

www.bma.org.uk/news-views-analysis/news/2016/february/junior-doctors-press-ahead-with-industrial-action

The junior doctors sound quite reasonable.

keepournhspublic.com/blog/press-release-we-call-on-labour-to-boycott-the-nhs-commission/

Just read this on konp and the NHA. What they are saying is that if everybody goes along with this commission, the people in charge of it will be those who want to privatise it, and have connections to private healthcare companies.
There should be a cross-party alliance against privatisation of the NHS.

Catching up on this thread again and I see Alea commenting about a senior Partner leaving his surgery on a Friday in the early evening.

This doctor (if not responding to an emergency call) may have been leaving to catch a train or drive to a 'weekend away'.....

My daughter has just returned from a 'weekend away' (from Friday - straight after surgery - to Sunday evening).

She and the other Partners, at least twice a year, rent a house for a weekend to thrash out all the problems and concerns of running two busy surgeries (this is in addition to the regular evening meetings - until c11.00pm. Meetings cannot be arranged as per a normal 'business'). This obviously means working a straight fortnight - do many other professions work thus, with the added high levels of concentration necessary?

I would like to add that my DGD through a strop yesterday and told us she 'hated her Mummy's work'. Through her eyes, Mummy is not there enough evenings and misses weekends too. Through her eyes, doctors do quite enough hours.

I have not mentioned the weekend hours my DD has to put in to work on her appraisal/all the after-surgery reading of journals and updates/the extra weekends giving flu jabs etc.

I realise I am writing regarding GP's but Jeremy Hunt won't stop at 'junior' doctors. It will be GP's and other ancillary staff, then the old chestnut of teachers and policemen.

Incidentally, we don't expect to see our hairdresser/classroom teacher/decorator at 6.00am or late at night, so why - in most cases (anything else, that's what A and E is for) can't we wait until daytime hours to be treated?

I attended a meeting last week at which a participant mentioned his son is undertaking a GP rotation. He is enjoying it very much but is appalled about the pressure of work and number of hours expected. His thought is to qualify and become a locum, earn loads of money and then emigrate to Australia where, apparently doctors are treated better.

I also spoke to a friend in the States who laughed uproariously when I explained the pay and conditions of qualified staff and couldn't believe how little they are paid and how poorly treated.

We need more doctors not fewer (driven away by the current system and fewer staying post-qualification) and it is impossible to elicit a greater spread of hours from existing staff. They can indeed work on a Wednesday from 6.00am to 10.00pm but they can't do this on a Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday too.

It was announced in parliament that 1500 doctors applied to work overseas last week alone.
I wonder what Jeremy Hunt thinks about that. Whether the NHS survives or not, we still need doctors here.