Would you support the doctors' strike.

Hunt wrote the book about it.

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

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.

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

X posted

We certaintly need more doctors here Jen .

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?

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.

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?

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

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?

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

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

www.opendemocracy.net/ournhs/dominic-pimenta/jeremy-hunt-goes-nuclear-12-things-you-need-to-know

This is why Jeremy Hunt is to blame.

I support the Doctors . Hunt has an agenda and also won`t back down as that would be the end of his career for the time being ! these disgraced Tories usually go quiet for a while then reappear when they think everyone has forgotten .

Anyone heard the statement he made in the house yesterday wasn't accurate ,I only heard a snatch

www.onmedica.com/NewsArticle.aspx?id=ae9bd3c7-fd91-4ab1-a314-1df8f3ee6a46

This is what the hospital chief executives said about his statement that they backed him. Most of them didn't.

Corbyn's very quiet these days. Is he on another walking holiday?

www.theguardian.com/society/2016/feb/12/hospitals-jeremy-hunt-junior-doctors-contract

This is interesting. It seems that hospitals do not need to use Hunt's comtract. They can offer whatever contract they want.

The Shadow Health Secretary is Heidi Alexander Ana and she speaks for the shadow cabinet on this.
Hunt is also pretty quiet, dodging interviews and sending junior ministers to the Commons to defend his position.

Interesting comments in this mornings paper

.
The Hunt problem

To say junior doctors are suspicious of Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt is to state the obvious.

This week the BMA was using terms like "attacked" and "patronised". Perhaps with some justification.

There are plenty of people within the health service not associated with the BMA who privately acknowledge the health secretary could have gone about this much better.

There is also a belief among doctors that this contract is part of a wider desire to erode the terms and conditions of the entire NHS workforce to make it cheaper to increase staffing at weekends.

To, in effect, squeeze more and more from a workforce that believes it gives plenty.
Image copyright PA

And while the government has made much of its claims that some doctors will be better off, a significant number - perhaps as many as one in four - would lose out if it wasn't for the government pledge to top up their pay for three years.

In short, the profession believes if staffing is to be increased at weekends it needs to be accompanied by an increase in investment.

But ministers are trying to do this for the same money. The sums simply don't add up, doctors say

My thoughts, is this the way to build up good working relations or arrogant
Minister determined to have his way?

Thank heaven Corbyn doesn't pop up on tv hugging huskies, making salads , feeding orphan lambs , jogging, surf boarding, he did meet striking doctors on a demo but this wasn't interesting for the Tory press to print , doctors on strike not important , donning Lycra and surfing boarding is

Thank you Jen, not known for honesty is Hunt,

The real agenda behind the new contract was well explained by a junior doctor www.lbc.co.uk/junior-doctor-perfectly-explains-why-you-should-back-them-124912
So having a 7 day NHS with elective surgery and clinics at the weekend is about making it more attractive to private health companies- makes perfect sense to me.

Corbyn was actually at the enquiry into the Hillsborough disaster, quietly talking to families involved, along with Andy Burnham.

Hunt wouldn't dare go there. He blamed the fans when he was culture secretary.