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Permalink Reply by Donald Smith on February 15, 2016 at 13:48

From: Ruth Marsden

Sent: Thursday, February 11, 2016 6:24 PM

To: A3a

Subject: What a mess?

 

• HAPIA

Dalton-letter chiefs deny support for contract imposition

11 February, 16

Five of the twenty chief executive signatories to David Dalton’s letter to Jeremy Hunt on the junior doctor’s contract have said that they do not support contract imposition.

 Their words contradict the health secretary’s apparent suggestion to parliament this morning that he had their backing for an imposed contract.

A further three signatories declined to give their explicit support for imposition when asked directly to do so.

Central North West London Foundation Trust chief executive Claire Murdoch, has issued a statement saying she was “unhappy” to be included on the list and at being perceived to be supporting the government’s plan to impose a contract on junior doctors.

Four other signatories to the letter – in which Sir David advised the government to do “whatever it deems necessary” after the British Medical Association rejected a final offer – have said they were not lending support for an imposed contract.

These are: Royal Free London FT chief executive David Sloman; Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh FT chief Andrew Foster; West Suffolk FT chief Stephen Dunn; and Royal Wolverhampton Trust’s David Loughton.

The three signatories which declined, when asked, to give their explicit support for imposition are:

University Hospitals of Leicester Trust’s John Adler; St George’s University Hospitals Trust’s Miles Scott; and Leicestershire Partnership Trust’s Peter Miller.

Informing parliament this morning of his decision to impose the contract, Mr Hunt said: “Sadly, despite this progress and willingness from the government to be flexible on the issue of Saturday pay, Sir David wrote to me yesterday advising that a negotiated solution is not realistically possible.

“Along with other senior NHS leaders and supported by NHS Employers, NHS England, NHS Improvement, the NHS Confederation and NHS Providers, he has asked me to end the uncertainty for the service by proceeding with the introduction of a new contract that he and his colleagues consider both safer for patients and fair and reasonable for junior doctors. I have therefore today decided to do that.”

The organisations he cited, and the 20 chief executives, were listed at the end of Sir David’s letter, as having “confirmed that the best and final position of NHS Employers is considered ‘fair and reasonable’” and “that the NHS needs certainty on the Junior Doctors’ contract and that a continuation of the dispute, with a stalemate and without clear ending, would be harmful to service continuity, with adverse consequences to patients”.

Speaking this afternoon, Sir David said the chief executives listed had not been asked to sign up to support contract imposition.

He said: “The statement that they agreed to was confirming that the best and final position was considered fair and reasonable, and that they believed the NHS needed certainty and not continuation of the stalemate.

“If anyone wants to make an inference [from this that they supported] imposition then that is their inference – [but] that is not what [the signatories] have committed their names to.

“I neither want to say they do, or that they don’t [support imposition]. There is a variety of opinion in this.”

The DH declined to comment.

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