Try as I might I can't get the image of Andrew Lansley laughing his ass off out of my head. He claims to have credible statistics showing that only eight per cent of NHS doctors supported yesterday's farcical damp squib. Even if twice as many took part he must now know that doctors, previously viewed as the Big Bad Wolves, are nothing more than snuggly-wuggly roll us over and tickle our tummies please puppy dogs.
We trumpet that we're going to take industrial action for the first time in forty years and what do we come up with? An extra Bank Holiday, except that we all turned up for work as if nothing had happened. And do you know what, nothing did.
I don't know how you voted, but I didn't vote “Yes/Yes” I voted “Yes/No”, or was it “No/Yes”? I don't remember. The bottom line is that I voted for strike action and against anything that fell short of it. Let's do the job properly or not bother.
The last thing we needed was a 'Day of Action' that didn't even go off half-cocked.
It doesn't matter what we threaten in future, the Department of Health are going to weigh up the pros and cons, take a wide angle view of the Big Picture, consider the ramifications of a variety of different courses of action and then, simply ignore us. Because when push came to shove we crumbled like the meringues served up for dessert at a posh kitchen supper. We're there on a plate, ripe for the taking and it's the DoH who have the big spoon.
Dr Tony Copperfield is a GP in Essex. You can follow him on Twitter @DocCopperfield
