The BMA unwisely challenged Ministers to choose between keeping doctors happy or acting to improve patient safety.
They’ve been compared to the miners, who only lost when careful Government planning and irresistible technological change undermined them.
Adopting the airlines’ no-fault investigation model is in the best interests of patients, and fits a pattern of minister-led Conservative reform.
Downing Street and Conservative MPs should not abandon this reforming Health Secretary under pressure from the BMA and the unions.
Inflicting added misery and costs isn’t an unfortunate side effect, it’s the explicit intent of the BMA and the tube unions.
Junior doctors must not let their strike be hijacked by those who would prolong it for the sake of bringing down the Government.
The nationally-agreed contract has been nothing but trouble since its inception. It caused the last strike in 1975 – and should be consigned to history.
It is vital that both sides get back to the negotiating table, with mediators if necessary, to prevent action which will harm patients.
The Health Secretary attributes the overwhelming ballot result to a BMA disinformation campaign.
The BMA is a trade union that uses public pressure to bargain for higher wages. I don’t begrudge you that. But NHS reforms have to be fair to patients, too.
Plus: The Enemy Within rings me during my LBC programme. Back Hunt – defy the BMA. And: I want to buy Margaret Thatcher’s clothes.
There is a sense of entitlement that they should be carried along without any competition, meaningful performance reviews or a healthy fear of unemployment.
The current format of the service is no longer meeting the demands on it – a truth that neither the Government nor its critics are facing up to.
The union’s leaders have engaged in a dangerous and damaging political crusade, to the detriment of their profession.