The New Contract…


This week on Universal Medicine, we will be discussing the “historic agreement” which is set to be established with the new contract of junior doctors in England.
As you may be aware, the NHS is the publically funded health care system in England; the largest single-payer health care system in the world. In November 2015, the Government made a contract offer to junior doctors. This contract planned to impose longer working hours with less pay – what the Government refers to as a way to establish a ‘7-day NHS’. Currently, the social hours are Monday to Friday 7am-7pm, however the new contract has the proposal of Monday to Saturday 7am-10pm.

What’s the issue with this new contract, you ask?

Good question. The contracted weekly hours are proposed to increase from 60 to 90, a pay-cut of up to 30-40% as well as removing safeguards of junior doctors. Why should you care? Well… not only will this lead to a more stressful and strenuous workload for doctors, it also affects YOUR patient safety. Is it worth putting patient’s lives at risk? Obviously, the answer is no.

Consequently, this proposition sparked much debate, leading to numerous strikes to increase public awareness of this impeding issue. When ministers decided to still impose the contract in February 2016, it lead to the first ever all-out strike by junior doctors in the history of the NHS – which took place in April.

After much intensive discussion, ACAS, a government-funded organisation with the role of resolving employment disputes, a new agreement was put forward – an improvement on the previous. This newly proposed agreement features in better pay, improved safeguards on working hours, strengthens the moral plus quality of life of junior doctors and improves patient safety.
Now, the final decision is in the hands of the junior doctors… a ballot is set to begin in June 2016, with over 40,000 BMA members casting their votes. The future of the NHS lies on this decision and we very much look forward to hearing the result in early July.

Thanks for reading this week’s blog. Feel free to express your views on the new agreement in the comments below.

Written by Gagandeep Sachdeva      
Universal Medicine

Sources:
- http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health
- http://www.bma.org.uk/working-for-change/junior-and-consultant-contract-home/junior-doctor-contract-negotiations-home
- http://www.acas.org.uk/media/pdf/g/6/Junior-doctors-contract-agreement-18-May-2016.pdf

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