Jeremy Hunt: The Health Secretary who couldn’t care less about doctors

Last Updated: September 29, 2015By

If anybody needed proof of the contempt in which Jeremy Hunt and the Conservative Government hold NHS doctors, consider this:

They cancelled a meeting which many doctors had made arrangements to attend, with just a few hours notice – meaning those doctors would have arrived, possibly after many hours’ travel at their own expense, to find they had wasted their journey.

Not only that, but they would have also wasted a day at which they could have been at work, because Jeremy Hunt had made a last-minute decision. He could have made it days before, and saved everybody involved a lot of time, effort and money.

He didn’t.

Clearly, inconveniencing a large number of doctors – both financially and professionally – is of no interest to this Health Secretary.

Doesn’t that send out the clearest message of all?

An ‘open meeting’ about the 7-day NHS has been cancelled with just a few hours’ notice after 5,000 medics planned a protest outside.

Health service chiefs planned the meeting to address changes that will see junior doctors paid the same rate for 9.30pm on a Saturday as 9am on a Monday .

But nearly 5,000 medics signed up to picket outside the meeting with banners and placards to make their voices heard.

NHS Employers confirmed it was postponing the meeting just five hours before it was due to take place.

Chiefs insisted delaying the meeting at Westminster Central Hall in London – along with others across the country – had nothing to do with the mass protest.

They said it was because Jeremy Hunt has written to the junior doctors’ representative in the British Medical Association union for further talks.

But doctors on social media claimed the move could be a sign the NHS is backing down in the face of nationwide pressure.

And they planned to go ahead with the protest anyway, writing on Facebook : “We must show them a united front.

Source: NHS cancels open meeting about 7-day contracts after 5,000 doctors arrange protest – Mirror Online

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16 Comments

  1. Samuel Miller (@Hephaestus7) September 29, 2015 at 1:51 am - Reply

    Excellent blog piece by a young psychiatrist: Why the new junior doctor contract is a slap in the face | The Psychiatry SHO* https://psychiatrysho.wordpress.com/2015/09/17/why-the-new-junior-doctor-contract-is-a-slap-in-the-face/

  2. NMac September 29, 2015 at 3:39 am - Reply

    Hunt is an extremely corrupt and dishonest character. Simple as that.

    • Michael Broadhurst September 29, 2015 at 2:04 pm - Reply

      just like the rest of this scumbag government.

  3. mili68 September 29, 2015 at 5:51 am - Reply

    Tweeted @melissacade68

  4. mili68 September 29, 2015 at 5:55 am - Reply

    I have just had a 2 1/2 year of treatment cut to 2 years without prior warning 6 weeks approx before the 2 years is up.
    The reason? No one is allowed beyond 2 years of treatment in this service. . . am I going to get better within the next 6 weeks? NO!!! What am I suppose to do after?? Who knows: I’ll be discharged and left to my own devices, not well but hey that’s not JC’s problem right?!

  5. marcusdemowbray September 29, 2015 at 6:38 am - Reply

    Hunt’s nick name is proven (yet again) to be VERY APPROPRIATE.

  6. Christin Bergin September 29, 2015 at 6:55 am - Reply

    So far the tory party have managed to ‘dis-respect’ just about every profession.Teachers, nurses, doctors,solicitors, judges. barristers and just about anyonee else with a profession that is ethics based. (pretty sure I forgot a few) They seem to cherish the financial sector whose greed and selfishness (and outright criminality worldwide caused misery). Old saying-‘by their friends you will now them.’
    Another saying ‘look at what they do not what they say’.
    Our PM was a PR man and oh boy does it show!

  7. Ram K Padmanaban September 29, 2015 at 7:01 am - Reply

    Are the doctors expected to give 2 weeks notice to post anything on social media too?

  8. Ram K Padmanaban September 29, 2015 at 7:01 am - Reply

    ffs, call for no cofidence already!

    • Mike Sivier September 29, 2015 at 10:22 am - Reply

      Wasn’t there already a debate on a ‘no confidence’ vote on Hunt?

  9. Mr.Angry September 29, 2015 at 7:31 am - Reply

    Tories, words fail me, evil to the core.

  10. Martin Odoni September 29, 2015 at 9:28 am - Reply

    It also says a lot about the Government’s unprecedented level of cowardice, if once again they are running away and covering their ears when they face mass-protests. Hunt’s request for ‘more talks’ is a transparently silly cover story, as the meeting itself constituted more talks.

  11. Brian September 29, 2015 at 12:49 pm - Reply

    Is this not the same profession that the Government requires to perform the savage autocratic WCA on the sick & disabled community! They are making few friends, but worse for the tories, many enemies. Will the professions continue to co-operate? given the arrogance of these people? I think the line is wearing thinner.

    • Mike Sivier September 29, 2015 at 2:52 pm - Reply

      In fact it might not be the same profession that is asked to perform the WCA. We don’t know what qualifications these people have and some of them, when asked to show their qualifications, take extreme umbrage and end the interview – to the detriment of the claimant. It’s a sick situation – with most of the malady on the side of the assessors.

  12. Phil Lee September 29, 2015 at 8:38 pm - Reply

    Why should the doctors be special?
    The Tories couldn’t give a **** about anyone else, either, unless they make big “campaign contributions” (aka bribes), obviously.

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