The Demoralising Hunt

Posted on 10th March by Clinoncdoc

I am a junior doctor striking for the third time in only a few months, but I do so in despair. We have heard every junior doctor apologise repeatedly for the cancelled operations and clinics and repeatedly re-iterate that we would not be on strike given the choice. This is not junior doctors towing the party line, but truly how we feel. 

It is no secret the majority of doctors get a kick out of helping people. Yes, there’s an attraction to the intellectual challenge in a dynamic landscape often on the cutting edge of technology, but it is contact with patients that drives the vast majority of doctors. We are people-pleasers. Perhaps more than most other professions, doctors’ thrive on a positive public opinion and sense of value. It is confirmation that as a profession, we are keeping our patients happy and safe. I still get a buzz when I know that my actions have directly contributed to my patients’ wellbeing. Working in the emotive field of cancer, that feeling can sometimes be overwhelming. Perhaps part of it is for my ego, but my drive remains singular – I always want what’s best for my patients. 

So imagine my despair when Jeremy Hunt and David Cameron decide to make wholesale changes to how I deliver care without having modelled, costed, or staffed their punitive contract. Neither the Government nor NHS leaders have any idea of what it will cost to implement the ambiguous ‘7-day NHS’. On the back of £22 billion in cuts deemed ‘efficiency savings’ the reality is the money just is not there. The Government’s own risk assessment state that this contract cannot be ‘cost-neutral’ without impacting care.

Sample rotas provided by NHS Employers had doctors cycling frequently between night and day shifts, often with only 1 day in-between to try to adjust. Experts have reviewed these rotas and deemed them inherently unsafe as they will lead to jet-lagged doctors at risk of making mistakes. The rotas also don’t encourage continuity of care (being seen by the same doctor or team throughout the week). This will have a huge impact on patient safety and satisfaction.

There is a shortage of 6000 doctors and 23000 nurses in this country. Mr Hunt is not magically creating the required number of professionals to staff his ‘7-day NHS’. Rota gaps are ubiquitous. In the coming months, my own department will be searching for 3 locum registrars to ensure emergency cancer-care is safely staffed. The Health Service Journal has reported some Trusts cutting nightshift cover due to substantial vacancies (one Trust  was down 18 general medical registrars) Demanding the same number of doctors to do more for the same pay is not only unfair, but inherently unsafe.

What has hurt me the most, is how my own Health Secretary has used inflammatory and often military language in this process. He has said that I lack vocation when I regularly stay hours beyond my rota at no extra cost to ensure patient safety. I have gone 13 hours without so much as a meal or bathroom break for my patients. I have routinely missed birthdays and weddings. I have come in on my time off to prepare for clinical exams because my trust did not allow me enough training time. Doctors jeopardise their own health and wellbeing for the benefit of their patients. To then be insulted by our own health secretary is damning.

Mr Hunt has frequently used military language to describe me. I have been called a militant and he had no qualms about using his ‘nuclear option’ of contract imposition. Somewhere in this debacle, Mr Hunt has forgotten that I’m neither an anarchist nor a terrorist. I’m a geeky member of society that has studied exceptionally hard to get the grades required for Medicine. I left university with a personal debt of £50,000. I continue to study, attend courses and take post-graduate exams (all at my own expense) to further improve the care I deliver to my patients. Mr Hunts language has left me despondent. Do all my efforts and sacrifice not count for something?

Mr Hunt has painted me as money-hungry deviant. He suggests that I work unnecessarily long shifts to earn ‘danger-money’ – a term that no junior doctor has ever heard or used. He suggests that the industrial action is all about ‘saturday-pay’. I never asked for a pay-rise, and I certainly am not striking to get one. For Mr Hunt to publicise such a notion means he simply has not listened to my concerns. Worse still, he is actively attempting to spin public opinion against me through lies and manipulation.

It is clear Mr Hunt will go to just about any length to denigrate junior doctors in this ‘battle’. Recently, Mr Hunt used the Paris attacks to score political points against junior doctors.

The media have certainly played their part. The rightwing media have lambasted junior doctors in recent months. We have been vilified for taking holidays and drinking alcohol and unfairly been labelled ‘Moet medics’. We are repeatedly called money-grabbing. Mr Hunt’s influence over certain media outlets is well known, and it’s appalling that my own health secretary would go to such lengths to denigrate me in pursuit of political points.

For a group of professionals who thrive on being liked and valued, Mr Hunt’s method has been catastrophic. With morale at an all time low, and recruitment and retention of doctors in crisis, his handling of this debacle has alienated an entire generation of doctors who may no longer go the extra mile.

It has never been more apparent that Mr Hunt’s rare kind words about ‘valuing junior doctors’ are nothing more than lip-service. Mr Hunt has been caught on camera running away from a junior doctor trying to raise his concerns. He recently moved a public meet-and-greet to a secret location for fear that junior doctors may attend.  Mr Hunt has repeatedly refused to meet junior doctors face-to-face, declining all invitations to a television debate with doctors. 

For a man who’s door is always open, it is impossible to find the door.

Find me on Twitter: @clinoncdoc