With the dispute between Junior Doctors and the Government deadlocked, and patients continuing to face real difficulties as a result, the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges is today calling for a five day pause in the process of imposition of a new contract and a five day suspension of the threat of further industrial action so that talks can be resumed.
Both sides have an over-riding duty to put patients first and should remember that lives are potentially at risk. To date, hundreds of thousands of treatments and procedures have been postponed, millions of pounds have been wasted and many junior doctors are considering alternative careers or moving abroad; all of these developments will put a potentially unsustainable strain on an already under-resourced system, both in the short term, and for years to come.
Professor Dame Sue Bailey Chair of the Academy of Medical Colleges said, ‘A five day pause without ‘ifs, buts or maybes’ and with both sides in the dispute publicly committing to a serious attempt to reach a resolution through genuine dialogue is obviously the only way out of this impasse.
Before either side does anything else, all the 22 Medical Royal Colleges and Faculties are unanimously calling on the Secretary of State for Health, Jeremy Hunt, and the Chair of the BMA’s Junior Doctors’ Committee, Johann Malawana, to take a deep breath, dial down the rhetoric and get back to the table for talks facilitated, perhaps, by a senior independent figure.’
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