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Junior doctors vote against BMA-negotiated contract deal
GP practices risk automatic breach notices if given CQC ‘requires improvement’ rating
Researchers call for overhaul of ‘confrontational’ NHS complaints process
16:03 Health secretary Jeremy Hunt has responded to the junior doctor rejection of the new contract deal saying he will now ‘consider’ this.
His brief statement also pointed out that only 40% of those eligible to vote actually voted to reject the contract (because a third of those eligible to vote didn’t vote at all).
Although, by that metric, his own Government have the mandate of less than a quarter of the UK public.*
Mr Hunt said: ‘It is extrememly disappointing that junior doctors have voted against this contract, which was agreed with and endorsed by the leader of the BMA Junior Doctors’ Committee and supported by senior NHS leaders.
‘The BMA’s figures show that only 40% of those eligible actually voted against this contract, and a third of BMA members didn’t vote at all. We will now consider the outcome.’
*Pulse back-of-beermat calculations and http://www.votenone.org.uk/uk-unheard-third.html
14:20 Junior doctors are tweeting their support to Dr Johann Malawana in the wake of his resignation as chair of the BMA’s Junior Doctor Committee, with the hash tag #ThankYouJohann.
But don’t be alarmed if when you click on the hash tag, you feel you’ve accidentally ended up at a One Direction concert.
A brief Pulse investigation has revealed a certain Johann Vera was formerly a contender on Latin American singing contest La Banda, thought up by none other than Simon Cowell (and produced by Latin schmoozer Ricky Martin).
Among those giving their respects to the doctor who led the junior doctors’ rebellion against the Government’s threatened contract imposition was Dr Malawana’s predecessor in the role, Dr Tom Dolphin:
.@johannmalawana has given so much of himself to the profession this year. An honourable resignation after a huge effort. #ThankYouJohann
— (((Tom Dolphin))) (@thomasdolphin) July 5, 2016
13:40 Another person who has decided to quit is health minister Alistair Burt. Mr Burt – the MP for North East Bedfordshire – said that he would stand down from the front bench when the next Prime Minister is installed and continue as a backbench MP, writes the Independent.
His team said this was unrelated to both Brexit and the coinciding junior doctor contract vote. One wonders though, whether it is also unrelated to an expected Cabinet reshuffle.
13:22 The BMA’s Junior Doctor Committee chair Dr Johann Malawana has quit his post after over half of eligible members voted down the new junior doctor contract that he had negotiated with the Government.
A clear majority of 58% voted against the deal, which health secretary Jeremy Hunt had previously branded ‘historic’.
11:35 Do your patients suffer from Brexiety disorder? It turns out this newly-coined condition affects both ‘leavers’ and ‘remainers’, and especially women.
A survey of 2,000 UK adults in the week after the EU referendum found nearly half (45%) had experienced increased levels of anxiety in its aftermath.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, those voting Remain fared the worst, with almost eight in ten (79%) experiencing increased anxiety levels following the Leave vote.
Women were 10% more likely than men to be experiencing a post-referendum anxiety spike, said anxiety specialists Dr Michael Sinclair and Dr Stephen Cox of bcalm.
Asked what were the main causes of Brexiety, survey respondents listed issues such as increased hostility to migrants, political uncertainty, fears over cost of living and fears Scotland would leave the UK.
But among those voting Leave, some 5% also said they feared being blamed for voting in a certain way. Among Remain voters, this Brexiety trigger affected only 0.2%.
09:40 Fertility treatment is most likely to work, according to new research which found almost three in four couples eventually became parents having started fertility treatment.
The BBC reports on a Danish study of 20,000 couples finding that 65% had children within three years with IVF, and 71% within five years – although it did stress success was heavily influenced by age.
Reasearcher Dr Sara Malchau told BBC News: ‘There is a very good chance of having a child, even if you have difficulties conceiving on your own.
‘Most causes of infertility can be overcome, but age is the most important factor to predict if treatments are going to be successful or not.’
She added that the likelihood was also greater if the woman had a BMI lower than 30 and was a non-smoker.
