Hunting down the doctors Jeremy Hunt

maybe we aren't the only ones after you

You are hunting down the junior doctors Jeremy and I don't think that you have really thought it through.  Grandpa and I have sat down with our doctor daughter and her doctor husband to work out how this is going to affect them and although we understand the NHS is unwieldy and costs too much we think you don't realise that you are going about your cuts in the wrong way.  You are heading for a fight when they really don't want it.  They want to be able to look after their patients but they realise that the N.H.S will lose doctors who can't afford to work for you and won't attract young people to train.  I am sure that you think that you aren't disadvantaging them but you are and remember  a Junior Doctor will probably have incurred a large debt whilst qualifying, will have paid tuition fees, accommodation and food over their long training period.  They will be in their mid twenties to early thirties and will have no chance of paying the debt off for years.  Being that age, they will hope to have some personal life, to find a partner and may hope to have a home and start a family.  They will already have less time to spend doing this than their friends who are in different professions.

We notice that MP's have changed their own hours to make the job sociable and family friendly so you must understand that sociable hours mean functioning families, unsociable hours might create dysfunctional ones.  We hope you have read this article about picking the wrong fight.   You probably won't read this meditating Granny blog!  We think that we will have to meditate our way to healthy old age because there may not be enough doctors to help us when we need them.

You say that their basic pay won't go down but think of this.  Their basic pay will now cover what has already been thought of as working unsocial hours.    Their hours will mean that they will be working later and on the weekends for no extra pay.  You are riding on the back of the feeling that the National Health Service is failing and doctors are part of the problem but if you think about it, when you lose doctors and can't attract people into the profession, the National Health Service will be worse.  The trouble with the hospitals isn't the junior doctors, it maybe that there aren't enough of them.  You seem to have spoken to the press a lot and given them a story which puts these doctors in a bad light.  They don't want to strike, of course they don't but they don't see how you will ever listen to the reality of the impact of your contract on them. Grandpa and I are having to jump up and down and write about this because our two doctors are working their socks off already as well as having long journeys, large mortgages and little expectation of being able to start a family.  Don't Hunt them to death Mr Hunt.