Showing posts with label Junior Doctors. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Junior Doctors. Show all posts

Tuesday 26 April 2016

Larry Sanders: junior doctors are heroes in the fight for a high quality NHS



Commenting on the  junior doctors' strike, Natalie Bennett, Leader of the Green Party of England and Wales, said:
It is sad that junior doctors have been forced to this point by the obstinate approach of the health secretary, whose flat-out refusal to drop his insistence on imposing a new contract has scuppered any possibility of meaningful talks with the British Medical Association.

Industrial action is a last resort and I know from having spent time on the picket lines over recent months that junior doctors are taking this unprecedented action with a heavy heart.

The government must change the way it treats our NHS and reopen negotiations with the junior doctors. A caring health secretary would negotiate with the junior doctors to produce an acceptable contract.
Until then, I, and fellow Green Party members and supporters will continue to stand in solidarity with NHS staff as we fight for what’s right.
Greens supporting the junior doctors today
Larry Sanders, the Green Party's Health and Social Care Spokesperson and the brother of US presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders, added:
The Green Party supports the junior doctors’ strike because the new contract, if imposed, would have disastrous effects on patients and the NHS.

We are pleased that medical risks will be minimised by the back-up of senior doctors.

The junior doctors are heroes in the fight for a high quality NHS. They do not want to strike; their pride is in their work.
Jeremy Hunt is attempting to force a contract on them which puts patients at risk and reduces their pay. If he succeeds he will drive devoted doctors from the NHS. We already have too few doctors, nurses and hospital beds, with £22 billion of further cuts in the pipe line. A victory for Hunt would be an important step towards a profit-based NHS.

Wednesday 10 February 2016

Greens back Junior Doctors: Government playing with fire over the dispute


Natalie Bennett, Green Party Leader, attended a picket outside Barnet General Hospital today to demonstrate the Green Party's solidarity with junior doctors. 
Greens oppose the creeping privatisation of our NHS and are fighting for a publicly funded, publicly provided health service free at the point of use.

Speaking from the picket, Bennett said:
The government is playing with fire with its bullying, disrespectful attitude towards the junior doctors.

There is a global shortage of medical professionals and almost everyone I have spoken to on the doctors' picket lines knows a colleague who has already emigrated. Many more are considering it.

Our talented healthcare professionals are a national asset who are being driven away by this government. We need to value, support and listen to our junior doctors.  

Instead, ministers are failing to address doctors’ serious concerns surrounding safe working conditions, and aren’t offering proper recognition for those working unsocial hours.

The government must rethink the way they're treating our NHS. As a start they should negotiate with the doctors in good faith, and put forward the offer of a contract that is fair and works for staff and patients alike. Until then we’ll continue to stand in solidarity with the junior doctors as they fight for what’s right.


Tuesday 12 January 2016

Leading Greens, rallying to the Junior Doctors' cause, joined picket lines this morning


Leading Green Party politicians joined Junior Doctors on the picket line at St Thomas’ Hospital in London this morning.

Caroline Lucas MP, Natalie Bennett, Baroness Jenny Jones and Sian Berry, the Party’s Candidate for Mayor of London, joined doctors who are taking industrial action over proposed changes to their contracts.

Caroline Lucas and Natalie Bennett
Ahead of joining the picket Caroline Lucas, MP for Brighton Pavilion, said:
We fully support the action being taken by junior doctors today.  These dedicated professionals must be treated with the respect they deserve– and the people who use the NHS have a right to being looked after by a rested and fairly paid workforce.

I know that Junior Doctors have not taken the decision to go on strike lightly but they simply don’t feel like they have any other option than to take this action.”

This strike is happening because the Government is failing to address very serious concerns around safe working conditions, while failing to offer proper recognition for those working unsocial hours. Ministers have treated Junior Doctors with contempt and subjected them to a campaign of misinformation – it’s no wonder they’re at the end of their tether.

This contract change is part of a wider Government assault on our health service. Student nurses have had their grants snatched away – and costly NHS marketisation is continuing. Now healthcare professionals are standing up to the bully boys around the Cabinet table.
Junior Doctors should be offered a contract that’s fair to them and guarantees patients the treatment they deserve. Until they get that recognition the Green Party will stand side by side with Junior Doctors in their campaign.
Sian Berry, the Green Party’s candidate for Mayor of London, said:Natalie Bennett, Jenny Jones,
We all know that junior doctors do not take strike action lightly, so if they feel they have no option because the government isn’t listening to them, we all ought to believe them. We don’t let lorry or bus drivers carry on working when they’re too tired to perform their jobs safely, so it seems senseless that the Department of Health is ignoring doctors’ own concerns in the same regard.
This is a short-sighted move in every respect: doctor fatigue has been found to cause a 15 percent increase in the likelihood of medical errors, and the overstretched National Health Service will end up under even more pressure if we force junior doctors to jeopardise patient safety by working longer hours.

Dputy Leafer Shahrar Ali in the frame
 Green Party leader, Natalie Bennett said:
We know that doctors don't want to strike, but they have been driven to this position by the actions of Jeremy Hunt, who from his own testimony has clearly failed to listen to their concerns, and certainly failed to act on them."

With junior doctors set to go on strike and nurses having already marched on the streets on Saturday against the replacement of training bursaries with loans, the way in which the government has mismanaged, indeed deliberately torn apart, the NHS, is becoming apparent to all.
Campaigners have been highlighting for years the way in which privatisation has been fragmenting and damaging our health service, but it is now becoming evident to all that the government's desire is to hand our public service over to the profit-driven health multinationals, one part of which is cutting the pay and conditions of staff.
Baroness Jenny Jones said:
I am extremely pleased to be able to support junior doctors.

Though no-one – including the doctors themselves – ever wants to see people forced to strike, it is time the government recognised the vital job junior doctors and other health service professionals do for us all. They are part of the front-line working to keep us healthy and helping us face and overcome illness and injury.

The people of the UK recognise the vital work that they do, and that it is a risk to us all – doctors and those they treat – to remove safeguards against them working dangerously long shifts. No-one wants to be treated by exhausted doctors and no-one should have to be.
That’s why I am standing with our junior doctors. Because they – and their patients – deserve to be protected from bad policy which will increase risk to all.

Sunday 10 January 2016

Junior doctors accuse Hunt of gambling with lives: 'Jeremy's Punt' stunt


A faux betting shop storefront has been erected outside a London hospital and the Palace of Westminster by the junior doctors campaign group, ahead of the first planned strike on Tuesday January 12, to represent how Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt’s plans to introduce radical reforms to doctors’ contracts could gamble with the public’s health.

The betting shop, dubbed “Jeremy’s Punt” was launched as the Government's continued failure to address doctors' concerns that no proper safeguards have been put in place to prevent hospitals from forcing them to work dangerously long hours.

Junior doctors are worried that the new contract will lead to increasingly unsafe working patterns without adequate rest and recovery, as well as changes to the definition of ‘office hours’ weekday and weekend working.

The fake betting shop was offering ‘Money Back’ if Hunt re-negotiates, ‘Evens on being treated by an overworked doctor’ and ‘3/1 on reforms causing a preventable medical error’ as a way to get the message across.

The monitoring system that protects the number of hours junior doctors can work has been in place for over 15 years, but now, under the proposed reforms, faces a drastic alteration that could put the public’s lives in danger, doctors say.

Following a freedom of information request, doctors have received confirmation from the Department Of Health that there has been no specific assessment into modeling patient safety under the new contract, showing that Hunt’s actions are a gamble.

Doctors’ fears carry merit as the most recent study into fatigue and medical errors, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in September 2009*, revealed that fatigue could see an increase of medical error rise by 15%. 

Dr Nadia Masood, an anaesthetic trainee in London said:
We work hard to keep our patients safe and want to continue doing so.  You wouldn’t drive for 13 hours without proper breaks, yet the government want to remove vital safeguards in their version of the new contract. Tired doctors make mistakes, this contract doesn’t protect patients or staff adequately.
We chose this profession because of an innate passion for the care of people, but these reforms are showing a lack of that for both the public and us. We cannot gamble with people’s lives, plain and simple.
Initially the government was content to remove the safeguards entirely, but under pressure from the BMA (British Medical Association), created the role of ‘guardian’ to protect junior doctors from working unsafe hours. However, the Government is insisting that hospital trusts make this appointment, without input from the BMA, leading to a conflict of interest where junior doctors believe the guardian’s true agenda will be helping the overstretched hospital trusts to cut costs, not ending unsafe practice.

The proposed contract will also mean that doctors working shifts as late as 1.59am, which are not classified as night shifts, will not receive the necessary protections (breaks and rest periods) before being back on duty.

Dr Marie-Estella McVeigh, a junior doctor in London said:
For all of us, the strikes, planned to start on Tuesday, are the last resort to make Jeremy Hunt listen to the issues that we face on the front line of patient care. This is not about getting more money; the Government and BMA have agreed right from the start that the total cost of changes remains neutral, there’s no increase in the pay bill.
As doctors we are deeply concerned about safety. We feel the Government are not listening to our concerns and are playing games by ignoring 50,000 junior doctor whistle-blowers.
The current dispute centres on the Government’s new contract offer, which focuses on changes in working hours, patterns and conditions as well as restructuring and distributing pay within a neutral pay package.

Thursday 1 October 2015

Greens Back Junior Doctors' Industrial Action


Green Party health spokesperson and GP Dr Jillian Creasy has given her party's backing for junior doctors currently fighting health secretary Jeremy Hunt's plans to change their contracts.
Creasy accused the government of 'locking in' the crisis in the NHS with the changes, which could see junior doctors' pay cut by up to 30 per cent, as 'sociable' working hours are extended. Her comments came after talks between Hunt and a junior doctors' leader broke down last night.
Creasy said:
This short-sighted government is constantly expecting the NHS to do more with less. Our NHS is in crisis, and by failing to invest in junior doctors, the government is locking this crisis in for years to come, as more junior doctors move abroad or simply quit.
The Green Party stands with junior doctors, and supports their plans for industrial action over the planned changes to their contracts. These changes would be detrimental to the health of both junior doctors, who already work very long hours, and patients, whose safety will put at risk.
Jeremy Hunt must urgently change his position on this, and listen to the professionals who understand the implications of his politically-motivated plans.