When Our Turn Comes We Will Make No Excuse

labourpress:

Heidi Alexander MP, Labour’s Shadow Health Secretary, commenting on the start of this week’s industrial action by junior doctors, said:

“This is one of the saddest days in the history of the NHS.

“Nobody wanted to see this strike go ahead, least of all junior doctors. But Jeremy Hunt’s handling of this dispute has been utterly shambolic.

“Even at the eleventh hour, Jeremy Hunt refused to back a cross-party proposal which could have helped to stop this week’s strike from going ahead. When he could have compromised and put patients first, he chose strikes. 

“We desperately need to find a resolution to this dispute. I urge Jeremy Hunt to think again, get back round the negotiating table and do what is right for patients.”

This cross party proposal, if I’m remembering right, was to have the new junior doctors contract piloted in some hospitals. Frankly that’s stabbing the junior doctors in the back and shows, as always, Labour’s more concerned about ending strikes rathe than winning them. The real purpose of this new contract, and the extension of non-emergency care into the weekend, is to assist with the privatisation of the NHS. It must be stopped. Don’t give them a way out. Call on them to scrap the contract, that’s the only just way to end these strikes.

(via labourpress)