Junior doctors are set to take industrial action, says BMA

Dear Editor,

As a member of the general public, it is alarming to realise that the changes to the junior doctor contract will not only alienate current junior doctors, but also future medical professionals. In a profession where morale is low, and there are already difficulties in recruitment and retention in key specialties such as acute medicine and general practice, can the NHS afford this?

As a prospective medical student, I would also ask that the government also taken into consideration those secondary school students who are now facing the choice of which career path to follow since, quite frankly, the government’s unfavourable proposals are acting as a deterrent to what is already a challenging career in itself. As a student in a highly performing girls’ school, I have always been made aware that I can do whatever I want to do, as long as I put hard work and graft into it. As a result, I have decided to pursue medicine at university. Unfortunately, these proposals have caused several of my peers, who are less certain, to re-evaluate whether they are choosing the right career due to several key issues: the demoralizing portrayal of junior doctors in the media, not being able to go into research and academia as it is not affordable, and not having increased clinical experience recognized annually as it is done in other careers: this last issue is further exacerbated if the doctors are working part time, and can make medicine an unaffordable career choice.

However, perhaps the January junior doctors’ strikes will go some way in preventing young people from be deterred from a career in medicine by reminding the government of the integral role that junior doctors play in the NHS and, as such, encouraging them to reopen renegotiations until a fair deal for both patients and doctors can be found. Although several politicians may condemn this move by the BMA, the short term problems caused by the strike will be vastly outweighed by the problems that will occur in the future if the terms of the proposed junior doctor’s contract are not changed; these problems mainly being that patient safety will be compromised if existing safeguards are removed and that it is an unfair deal for junior doctors, especially in specialties like emergency medicine, to have their unsociable hours reduced.

Medicine is a profession that I am sure will be hugely fascinating and worthwhile. I know I want to do it. But what about all those clever, compassionate people that might have been such wonderful doctors, had the government not made the jobs prospects of being a junior doctor that much more difficult and exhausting? You may think I’m exaggerating. Sadly, I know a few of my peers are really, seriously wondering whether they want to work in medicine when other careers are so much easier, less stressful, and have a more equal work/life balance. This will alienate our best students. We must stop this occurring. We must stand together, the medical profession and the general public. We must save the NHS: not just for a today, but for a tomorrow.
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Yours faithfully,

Irene Jessel, Wolverhampton Girls’ High School