We must not let junior doctors down

It was the level of injustice being dished out that
made me wade into
the government's dispute
with junior doctors over unacceptable changes to their contracts. If unchallenged, this move would have startling implications for our civil liberties and patient safety.

I grew up in a country where fairness and justice were principles to be admired. When
I became a lawyer, I wanted to uphold those principles; obligated to speak out whenever I saw injustice done. What the government is proposing for
our junior doctors is one of the grossest injustices ever inflicted on a profession, and if we don't object loudly and passionately, we could all be next.

I have become outraged by the government's media spin and deliberate manipulation
of the public. I have also been impressed by the impact a speech at a rally and a YouTube video can have. There is hope still and I am pleased to see several national papers now joining the right side of the campaign.

Jeremy Hunt's idea of a negotiation is to bring nothing to the table and then take the table and chairs home with him afterwards. Only he would offer our hardworking doctors less pay than they get now for the hours they work, and then try
to sell it as a pay hike. Only he would try to persuade us all that Saturday is now Friday, that 7pm to 10pm is the afternoon.

It is no wonder our junior doctors have reacted with rage. It is anger I share with them.

Unfair and unsafe

This dispute has never been about pay. It is about imposing an unfair and unsafe contract
on one of our most valued professions. Tired and exhausted doctors make mistakes. As a medical negligence lawyer, I know what that means for patients. We simply cannot let the health secretary remove
the safeguards that discourage employers from making junior doctors work dangerously long hours.

It offends me when someone tries to skew the truth so blatantly. Hunt's 'cast-iron guarantee' that 'not a single person working legal hours
will see their salary go down' is nothing more than smoke and mirrors from a secretary of state for health who has shown time and again that we cannot believe what he says.

The issue is in what he hasn't promised. That no junior doctor working the hours they work now will be paid less. That the excessive hours our hardworking junior doctors work voluntarily today, as they struggle to maintain a health service at breaking point, will not change. By necessity, junior doctors are already working hours in excess of Hunt's so-called 'legal limit of hours' mandated by a shortage of doctors and a need to maintain patient care.

I have spoken to a number
of junior doctors who have told me that the pay cut on anti-social hours, around a third
of their pay, and an 11 per
cent increase in basic pay goes nowhere near to compensating them for that loss.

Non-negotiable terms

Despite pretending to be open to negotiation, the majority of the proposed new contract terms are, in fact, non-negotiable.
That is not a negotiation. It is bullying, and if Hunt was arguing this way in a court room, the judge would throw him in jail.

Remember, there is no more money and there are no more doctors. The junior doctors working so hard to maintain the health service today will be the same doctors working longer hours for less pay under Hunt's proposed new contract. This new contract is proposed by the same man who said in July that he wanted Mid Staffordshire to
be a turning point, while quietly announcing a new scheme to cap legal fees and deny families access to justice.

Hunt has recklessly used research in a misleading way to blame 11,000 'excess' deaths a year among weekend-admitted patients on a lack of doctors on duty. The report Hunt has been quoting from specifically said that: 'to assume they are avoidable would be rash and misleading'. Recent research suggests some patients may now be avoiding going to hospital at the weekend because of statements about inadequate NHS staffing levels.

We already have a seven-day NHS. How many more patients need to die before the prime minister steps in and makes it clear that Hunt has been wrong and thoughtless on this issue and removes him from his present position? This is the only way to restore public confidence, and it is something I will continue to campaign for as loudly as I can. I am in this fight for the long haul and intend
to see it through. I will fight injustice always and will not let our junior doctors down in this struggle. SJ

Peter Stefanovic is a partner at Simpson Millar @Simpson_millar www.simpsonmillar.co.uk

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