Junior doctors have been warned by the head of the British Medical Association to “take a step back” as they prepare to decide whether to escalate their battle over a new contract.
However, they have received the backing of Jane Dacre, head of the Royal College of Physicians, who said that there was not enough money or staff for a seven-day NHS.
Professor Dacre said that the squeeze on junior doctors was “only the beginning”, with other staff next in line if the government did not change course.
The first all-out doctors’ strikes in NHS history were held last week by staff angry with the government’s decision to impose a new contract after talks broke down over Saturday pay.
Junior doctors say that they are under increasing pressure as they treat more patients. At a meeting of the BMA Professor Dacre said that the NHS was “under-doctored, underfunded and overstretched”.
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Although the college, which sets professional standards, is meant to stay out of political and contract disputes, Professor Dacre said: “Anything that adversely affects patient care is fair game in my view.”
She said that doctors were rightly concerned about “the spectre of having to provide a seven-day service in future when we can barely staff a five-day one”. She added: “Junior doctors already work seven days per week in acute and emergency care. They do not feel safe, valued or supported and the imposition of the contract is the final straw. This is a tragedy for the NHS.”
Mark Porter, head of the BMA, said that ministers were in denial about the crisis in the NHS and that they were treating doctors with a “cold contempt”.
He accused the government of “fantasy” solutions and said that promises of an extra £8 billion a year were not enough to meet rising demand from an ageing population. “The mathematically competent can see that it’s all cuts and efficiencies,” he said, arguing that the junior doctors’ dispute was a “symptom of that crisis”.
However, Dr Porter hinted that he would be pressing junior doctors not to escalate the fight when they met this weekend to decide what action to take.
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An indefinite strike and mass resignations are on the table but Dr Porter said that he would be telling junior doctors to think “beyond ‘I’m angry’” and take account of wider opinion. “Every now and again it’s important to take a step back and look at things in a less immediately reactive way,” he said.
At yesterday’s meeting more than 300 doctors heard calls for the BMA to take wider action against the government as part of the TUC. Dr Porter said that he had met the TUC leadership but warned: “One of the temptations we can be faced with is to make the dispute wider than it actually is.”
