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| Junior doctors start first all-out strike - live | Junior doctors start first all-out strike - live |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| 8.29am BST | |
| 08:29 | |
| Nick Robinson’s last question is: “are you part of the problem?” Hunt says health secretaries are never popular but as far as he’s concerned the question he poses himself is: Did you take the tough decisions for the NHS to deliver better care, that’s what I’m absolutely determined to do. | |
| 8.24am BST | |
| 08:24 | |
| Jeremy Hunt rejects comparisons with miners' strike | |
| Jeremy Hunt is on the Today programme, being questioned by Nick Robinson. | |
| He denies that the government is itching for a fight, insisting that it has been trying hard for three years to find an agreement. As for comparisons for the miners’ strike, Hunt says he is not making such comparisons - as some ministers seem to be saying in background briefings. Given the government efforts to find a deal, Hunt says today’s action is not proportionate. The health secretary began by saying the government was trying to negotiate with the British Medical Association on a reasonable manifesto commitment for a seven-day contract. “It’s a very bleak day,” said Hunt. | |
| Updated | |
| at 8.29am BST | |
| 8.12am BST | |
| 08:12 | |
| What are the other papers saying about today’s stoppage? For the Telegraph, it is definitely a “miners’ moment”. | |
| Who governs? That question, first posed by Sir Edward Heath in 1974, defined politics for the following decade, as successive governments struggled with trade unions whose ability to disrupt public services and strategic industries gave them clout to rival that of elected politicians. It was answered, decisively and to the benefit of the whole country, by Margaret Thatcher. | |
| Sadly, that question has been raised once again by the British Medical Association and the all-out strike by junior doctors it has called. The union wants those doctors to withhold all care for patients today and tomorrow, even those needing emergency care. Its industrial action has already harmed patients: tens of thousands of planned operations have been cancelled, causing distress and pain. We can only pray that this is the worst harm caused by the BMA’s militancy. | |
| Hugo Rifkind at the Times thinks the junior doctors are making a big mistake (paywall). | |
| The longer strikes go on, the more routine operations are cancelled, the more — God forbid — patients die, then the more people, or at least, some people, will start to question their priorities. The government’s own callous intransigence will, of course, also be noted but that won’t make much difference because it already is. | |
| Doctors have more to lose. The argument that junior doctors on bad contracts pose a greater risk to the public than no junior doctors at all is simply not politically tenable, even if it were true, which it isn’t either. Sympathy will ebb, and criticism will mount, and stricken young medical professionals will retaliate, and look dreadful doing so, because their training is not in public relations but in saving lives. Then older doctors will denounce them, as they are already starting to, and the cycle will continue, and it will ebb some more. | |
| 8.06am BST | |
| 08:06 | |
| “Nobody wanted to see this strike go ahead, least of all junior doctors. But Jeremy Hunt’s handling of this dispute has been utterly shambolic. Even at the eleventh hour, Jeremy Hunt refused to back a cross-party proposal which could have helped to stop this week’s strike from going ahead. When he could have compromised and put patients first, he chose strikes. We desperately need to find a resolution to this dispute. I urge Jeremy Hunt to think again, get back round the negotiating table and do what is right for patients.” | |
| Updated | |
| at 8.22am BST | |
| 7.56am BST | |
| 07:56 | |
| Ahead of today’s action, the Guardian spoke to patients. Here is a flavour of what they said. | |
| Kate Stewart, a patient from Lincolnshire. | |
| “I fully support the strike. The medics have made it clear that the strike could be called off by offering numerous olive branches, compromises or invitations to talk further; the reason it is going ahead is down to Hunt’s stubbornness. But in truth, I think we know that this is all part of a plan to dismantle our NHS, and there is nothing we can do to stop it. Nothing will persuade Hunt to agree to anything that will call off the strike, and I don’t get the impression that he feels any regret about this.” | |
| Anonymous, 52, from Hartlepool. | |
| My wife is due an endoscopy for possible bowel cancer this Wednesday. She’s scared enough as it is without worrying whether her appointment may either be delayed or cancelled at the last minute... Withdrawing medical aid to those in need breaks the Hippocratic oath that all doctors vow to do at the start of their career. Those participating in industrial action who have stated that they withdraw their services from saving lives are now playing at God. That is unforgivable. As soon as junior doctors chose to withdraw care and treatment they lost my sympathy. | |
| 7.47am BST | 7.47am BST |
| 07:47 | 07:47 |
| “We’re seeing today that support for the junior doctors is still prevalent among much of the public, even when emergency care is withheld. However, support is not as high as when we were polling for the strikes where emergency care was provided, as we suggested might happen in January. However, the erosion of public support has not been as stark as the January polling suggested, and the public still have some patience left for the junior doctors’ cause.” | “We’re seeing today that support for the junior doctors is still prevalent among much of the public, even when emergency care is withheld. However, support is not as high as when we were polling for the strikes where emergency care was provided, as we suggested might happen in January. However, the erosion of public support has not been as stark as the January polling suggested, and the public still have some patience left for the junior doctors’ cause.” |
| Updated | |
| at 8.04am BST | |
| 7.36am BST | 7.36am BST |
| 07:36 | 07:36 |
| The NHS enters uncharted territory as junior doctors in England begin an all-out strike for the first time in its history. The stoppage begins at 8am and lasts until 5pm and there will be more of the same tomorrow. Unlike previous stoppages that began in January over a new contract the health secretary Jeremy Hunt wants to impose, junior doctors this time have refused to work in any area of medical care, including A&E and maternity services. Cover in those areas will be provided by senior consultants. Inevitably, the dispute has become more politicised and polarised with time, to the point where some senior ministers have described the confrontation as “a miners’ moment”, when Margaret Thatcher clashed with the National Union of Mineworkers in the early 1980s. We’ll be bringing you all the latest developments throughout the day with the help of colleagues around the country. Meanwhile, here is the Guardian’s coverage this morning. | The NHS enters uncharted territory as junior doctors in England begin an all-out strike for the first time in its history. The stoppage begins at 8am and lasts until 5pm and there will be more of the same tomorrow. Unlike previous stoppages that began in January over a new contract the health secretary Jeremy Hunt wants to impose, junior doctors this time have refused to work in any area of medical care, including A&E and maternity services. Cover in those areas will be provided by senior consultants. Inevitably, the dispute has become more politicised and polarised with time, to the point where some senior ministers have described the confrontation as “a miners’ moment”, when Margaret Thatcher clashed with the National Union of Mineworkers in the early 1980s. We’ll be bringing you all the latest developments throughout the day with the help of colleagues around the country. Meanwhile, here is the Guardian’s coverage this morning. |
| Updated | |
| at 8.21am BST |