Jeremy Hunt was grilled by MPs from Labour, the SNP and Green Party at Health Questions today on whether his department is responsible for the impending junior doctors’ strike. The Health Secretary said he was happy to talk to the BMA at any time and the government is simply fulfilling a ‘manifesto commitment’ for a seven-day NHS, as well as acting in the best interests of patients:
‘This is essential for the constituents of all honourable members, whichever side of the House they’re sitting on, and this government will always stand on the side of patients and the weekend mortality rates are not acceptable and that’s why we’re doing something about it’.
His opposite number in Labour, Heidi Alexander, said ‘if junior doctors do vote for industrial action, there will be one person to blame and that person is the Health Secretary’. Hunt tried to spin the situation as a fight between unions and patients:
‘That is the difference: she follows the unions, I lead the NHS and when Labour had a big choice, whether to support vulnerable patients who desperately need better weekend care, they chose political expedience and the whole country noticed’.
Usually when the government is involved in an industrial dispute, it can argue the trade unions are bully boys from another era. But this time is different — Hunt may soon discover it’s much harder to paint doctors as not being on the side of ordinary people.
As Max Pemberton argued in the Spectator last week, Hunt is clearly spoiling for a fight but junior doctors’ contracts is the wrong battle. The BMA is holding a ballot on the strike action tomorrow, so we’ll find out then if 40,000 junior doctors will go head-to-head with the government and if Hunt is right about this being seen as a battle of patients vs unions.
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