20,000 people gathered in London's Waterloo Place on Saturday to protest against the government’s proposals for junior doctor contracts which include plans to redefine normal working hours up to 10 pm on Saturdays and the removal of safeguards to prevent juniors working excessive hours.
Speakers included Shadow Health Secretary Heidi Alexander, A&E consultant Rob Galloway and 92 year old activist Harry Leslie Smith who recalled his sister’s painful death from TB in the days prior to the NHS.
Juniors were also backed by an unlikely ally in the form of leading medical negligence lawyer Peter Stefanovic who also spoke to the crowd.
“It’s nothing more than a smoke screen to hide the fact that what the government wants to do is for you to work longer hours for less pay,” he said of the contract proposals. “It’s as simple as that,” he said, to a huge round of applause.
As well as junior doctors dressed in scrubs, protesters also included patients, nurses and consultants.
GPs were also well represented among the crowd including the Campaign for GP Survival, Resilient GP and Dr Clare Gerada.
GP partner Dr Clare Street explained why she had decided to march.
“I have another 20 years to go in the NHS and I don’t want to see it fold around me. These contract proposals are another fracture in the dismantling of the health service. We have to support our juniors in order to support the future of the NHS.”
Clare Isley, a GP from Sussex had also joined the crowd, bringing her children along. She explained her concerns that contract changes would put people off coming into primary care where the speciality is already under pressure to attract new doctors.
Following 2 hours of speakers, protesters then streamed down Pall Mall, filling Whitehall, chanting ‘Save our NHS’ and calling for health minister Jeremy Hunt to go.
Consultant breast surgeon, Chrissie Laban, said she was supporting juniors because the medical profession was, “demoralised, devalued and depressed,” citing the amount of work that staff were already doing for free out of good will.
The BMA are now balloting junior doctors as to whether they take the previously unprecedented manoeuvre to strike.
Jeremy Hunt, speaking to BBC Radio 4 just hours before the demo, said that the BMA had misrepresented his position, stating that his intension was to reform and not cut pay.
Hunt went on to say that the proposed contract changes would remove financial barriers to hospitals in order to be able to rota more junior doctors at weekends, quoting the statistic that patients admitted at weekends are 15% more likely to die – a controversial figure that has also inflamed doctors.
Obstetric consultant Philippa Greenfield, said of the contract proposals:
"These will have a huge impact on whether people go into medicine at all. This is not just about junior doctors. This is yet another mechanism that will ultimately destabilise the future of the NHS. This is the beginning of the end unless we all stand up and fight.”
