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Jeremy Hunt to impose contract on junior doctors after rejection of 'final offer' Jeremy Hunt to impose contract on junior doctors
(35 minutes later)
A new contract will be imposed on junior doctors after negotiations with the British Medical Association (BMA) failed, Jeremy Hunt has said. Ministers have decided to impose a new contract on NHS junior doctors after the British Medical Association rejected a “best and final” offer to settle the bitter dispute, Jeremy Hunt has told MPs.
The health secretary announced that talks to settle the dispute with junior doctors had failed and that a new contract would be imposed from 1 August, setting the scene for renewed confrontation and the possibility of further strikes. In a Commons statement, the health secretary confirmed that he was finally acting on his longstanding threat after months of negotiations with the doctors’ union had failed to produce a settlement.
He blamed the BMA’s refusal to negotiate on the key issue of whether Saturday should become part of a junior doctor’s normal working week for his move. He accused the union of being inflexible on an issue that was vital to delivering the government’s key manifesto pledge to introduce a seven-day NHS by 2020.
Related: Jeremy Hunt's statement to MPs on junior doctors' dispute - Politics liveRelated: Jeremy Hunt's statement to MPs on junior doctors' dispute - Politics live
Hunt delivered a statement to the Commons on Thursday after the government failed to reach a deal with theBMA, the union representing junior doctors. Hunt acknowledged that imposition would cause “considerable dismay” among junior doctors but insisted that it was a good deal for them that in time would earn their confidence.
He said the process had created “considerable dismay” among junior doctors but he felt that, given time, the contract would be accepted as a good thing. He repeated his longstanding claim that higher death rates among patients admitted to hospitals at weekends meant that a seven-day NHS offering the same quality of care across the week was needed, requiring junior doctors to work more often at weekends.
The BMA reacted with anger. Dr Johann Malawana said junior doctors “cannot and will not accept a contract that is bad for the future of patient care, the profession and the NHS”, as he vowed the union would “consider all options open to us”. Junior doctors reacted angrily to the announcement, with some saying they planned to quit the NHS in protest. Although Hunt claimed that many hospital bosses and NHS organisations backed his move, the wider medical profession has greeted the announcement with alarm.
Hunt told MPs that no health secretary could ignore the fact that standards in NHS hospitals were “too low” at weekends and more patients died than during the week. The BMA made clear it would fight the move, branded Hunt a “bully” and said it would now “consider all options open to us”. That is understood to include further industrial action including, potentially, an all-out strike that would see junior doctors refuse to work at all, even in emergency areas of care such as A&E, emergency surgery, and intensive care. They continued covering those areas in the strikes on 12 January and 10 February to protect patient safety.
Hunt said those working one in four or more Saturdays will receive a pay premium of 30%. It does represent a reduction in current rates, because hospitals must be able to afford additional weekend rostering, he said. The government will also give doctors a basic pay rise of 13.5%. “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”, the union said.
A deadline to accept the deal passed on Wednesday night. The government’s chief negotiator, Sir David Dalton, earlier warned this would mean talks had reached “the end of the road”. Dr Johann Malawana, chair of the BMA’s junior doctors committee, said: “The decision to impose a contract is a sign of total failure on the government’s part. Instead of working with the BMA to reach an agreement that is in the best interests of patients, junior doctors and the NHS as a whole the government has walked away, rejecting a fair and affordable offer put forward by the BMA. Instead it wants to impose a flawed contract on a generation of junior doctors who have lost all trust in the health secretary,.”
Hunt paid tribute to Dalton, who he said had reached agreement on 90% of issues. Imposition could prompt a generation of “alienated” junior doctors to choose not to continue their careers in the NHS, Malawana added
But Dalton and NHS England’s chief executive, Simon Stevens, had asked him to end the uncertainty, and Hunt said he has decided to do that. “This is clearly a political fight for the government rather than an attempt to come to a reasonable solution for all junior doctors,” he said. “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.
More details soon … “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.”
Doctors’ leaders fear that imposing a contract that has sparked huge protests and two strikes will in the future reduce further the already diminishing number of young doctors choosing to work in the NHS. The health service is is already short of doctors in key areas of care, such as A&E.
“We are shocked and dismayed at the government’s decision to impose a contract on our dedicated and committed junior doctors,” said Dr Maureen Baker, the chair of the Royal College of GPs.
“Imposing a deal on junior doctors is wrong-headed, will inevitably damage morale across the NHS – and may damage patient care,” Baker added.
NHS trusts in England will introduce the new contract from August. Under it, Saturdays from 7am to 5pm will, for the first time, become part of the normal working week for all 45,000 junior doctors. That will infuriate trainee medics – all those below the level of consultant – as they have resisted during recent negotiations any suggestion of Saturday becoming part of “plain time”, the hours for which they are paid only at their basic rate.
Hunt has also decided to extend junior doctors’ plain time from 7pm on weekdays to 9pm. The two moves together will mean that trainee medics will lose generous overtime payments they have received until now for working antisocial hours. However, Hunt sought to cushion the blow by announcing that their basic pay would rise by 13.5%, which is 2% more than the 11% he previously offered.
Labour’s Heidi Alexander, the shadow health secretary, warned Hunt in the Commons that his decision to impose the contract “could amount to the biggest gamble with patient safety this house has ever seen”.
“This whole dispute could have been handled so differently. 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 added.