Responding to Yvette Cooper’s appointment as Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, BMA council deputy chair Dr Emma Runswick said:
“We welcome Yvette Cooper to the role of Health Secretary and hope to work constructively with her to address the many issues facing doctors, patients, the health service and the health of the nation. As Secretary of State, she has an opportunity to reset relations with the NHS workforce, which will require action to reverse both pay erosion and the undermining of the profession, which has seen doctors forced onto the picket line in recent years.
“We still have three groups of doctors in England in dispute with the Government, and so solving these must be at the top of her in-tray.
“Consultants now have a mandate to strike, so reaching a solution that both avoids the need for senior hospital doctors to take industrial action in the short term, and safeguards the profession and patient care going forward, must be a priority. Specialist, associate specialist and specialty (SAS) doctors too must no longer be disregarded and devalued. They need proper recognition for the important work they do.
“GPs in England continue to take collective action, but the change in Health Secretary provides a critical opportunity to reset, solving the dispute and channelling a path that delivers for practices and patients, and assures the future of general practice as we know it.
“While the recent deal has been accepted by resident doctors in England, the Government must not lose focus on implementing it, or it faces further dispute. Ms Cooper should not be under the illusion that all is solved as we push to end the absurdity of doctor unemployment and look to next year’s pay review process.
“In medical schools funding cuts push the very academics responsible for educating our future doctors and undertaking vital medical research to leave - undermining government ambitions around science and development, and threatening the sustainability of the future medical workforce. While medical school places have increased, medical academic numbers have plummeted – leaving capacity overstretched and educational quality at risk. In the face of this, the Government must reduce medical student intakes until this is addressed. More too must be done to reform students’ financial arrangements, ensuring students can study to become doctors based on their ability, not on their ability to pay.
“Within the NHS, the new Health Secretary must finally put an end to the dangerous doctor replacement experiment, that is seeing doctors deliberately substituted with lesser qualified staff, often without patients realising.
“If the Government is serious about tackling ill health, reducing health inequalities and addressing problems before people need to get help via the NHS, it needs to value and empower public health doctors, and place them at the heart of decision-making. Redundancies in public health will have decades-long consequences.
“As the body representing all doctors and medical students across the country, we’re ready to work constructively with this Government to solve longstanding issues around pay, workload, capacity, and conditions, and hope that the new Health Secretary shares our desire to do so urgently.”
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Notes to editors
The BMA is a professional association and trade union representing and negotiating on behalf of all doctors in the UK. A leading voice advocating for outstanding health care and a healthy population. An association providing members with excellent individual services and support throughout their lives.