UK minister to impose contract on junior doctors

Junior doctors in Britain’s National Health Service have said they will consider “all options open to us”, possibly including an all-out strike, after the Conservative government announced it was imposing a new contract on them without their agreement.

Health secretary Jeremy Hunt told the House of Commons on Thursday he was imposing the contract despite the "considerable dismay" it would cause junior doctors, because their union, the British Medical Association (BMA), had been intransigent.

“Our door remained open for three years, and we demonstrated time and again our willingness to negotiate with the BMA on the concerns it raised. However, the definition of negotiation is a discussion where both sides demonstrate flexibility and compromise on their original objectives. The BMA ultimately proved unwilling to do this,” he said.

The new contract will make Saturday part of junior doctors' normal working week, a move the government says is necessary to improve patient care at weekends. Doctors say they already work long hours, including at weekends, and warn that the contracts could endanger patient safety. Johann Malawana, chair of the BMA's junior doctors' committee, warned that the government's move could drive many doctors abroad or out of the profession.

“This is clearly a political fight for the government rather than an attempt to come to a reasonable solution for all junior doctors. The government’s shambolic handling of this process from start to finish has totally alienated a generation of junior doctors – the hospital doctors and GPs of the future – and there is a real risk that some will vote with their feet,” he said.

"Our message to the government is clear: junior doctors cannot and will not accept a contract that is bad for the future of patient care, the profession and the NHS as a whole, and we will consider all options open to us."

The British public supports the doctors, who have held two limited, one-day stoppages in recent weeks, by a margin of two to one, according to opinion polls. Labour's shadow health secretary Heidi Alexander condemned Mr Hunt's handling of the dispute and warned that he was gambling with patient safety.

“The health secretary’s failure to listen to junior doctors, his deeply dubious misrepresentation of research about care at weekends and his desire to make these contract negotiations into a symbolic fight for delivery of seven-day services has led to a situation that has been unprecedented in my lifetime. Everyone, including the BMA, agrees with the need to reform the current contract, but hardly anyone thinks the need to do that is so urgent that it justifies imposition, and all the chaos that will bring,” she said.

NHS Trusts in England will introduce the contracts in August but it will be some time before all 55,000 junior doctors are on it.

The changes will not affect doctors in Scotland and Wales, where health policy is devolved to the administrations in Edinburgh and Cardiff.