Doctors have been sharing selfies and open letters about the pressures they face at work after the health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, called for healthcare professionals to work a seven-day week.
On Thursday, Hunt said he would impose weekend-working contracts and said working patterns need to change.
In response, doctors began sharing photos of themselves and colleagues on weekend shifts at hospitals across the country. A Facebook page set up the same day as Hunt made his comments encouraged doctors and other healthcare professionals to get involved using the hashtag #ImInWorkJeremy.
#ImInWorkJeremy This is me on my sons 1st b'day on a Saturday Consultant still operating! Shame we lack dedication pic.twitter.com/jYPdO3ujVD
— April (@Salfopms) July 19, 2015
Just finished Consultant round. The ward is a hive of activity caring for people living with HIV. #ImInWorkJeremy pic.twitter.com/UDZ21Qm9LF
— Michael Rayment (@mikeyrayment) July 19, 2015
Some doctors wrote open letters to the health secretary on Facebook. Laura Land, a doctor from Telford, wrote a status subsequently shared by thousands:
She wrote:
Are you at work this weekend Jeremy? Because I am. Thank you for making out that we’re lazy, money-grabbing Doctors who don’t want to work long hours, especially at the weekend. Despite being employed part time (I have a 9 month old son at home), I’ll have worked over 60 hours this week. We, Jeremy, are the people skipping lunch so we can make sure our patients’ paperwork is done so they can go home on time. We’re the people missing family birthdays, our friends’ weddings, our children’s first steps, because we’re putting our patients’ needs first. We are the people that don’t see our own families anywhere near as much as we’d like to, because we’re busy taking care of yours.
Janis Burns, a junior doctor, also shared an open letter on her Facebook page highlighting the long hours doctors work:
In the middle of the night my colleagues (doctors AND nurses AND radiographers AND healthcare assistants) and myself were assessing patients with multi-organ failure being supported with complex devices, these patients are teetering on the brink of death all the time. At the end of my 3 night stint, just when I was at my lowest ebb, a patient got really sick. You try managing that after you’ve been up all night and then tell me the NHS isn’t 24 hours 7 days a week 365 days a year. When you have personal experience of that, I would like you to look me, and every other doctor in the NHS, in the eye and tell us that you genuinely believe that we are being adequately paid for all the responsibility that rests on our shoulders.
They continued posting photos on Twitter until the early hours of Monday morning:
3.20 am off home 30 hours in A&E since Fri pm over the WEEKEND. my consultant is still carrying on #ImInWorkJeremy pic.twitter.com/bjbOkcmZG6
— Saleyha Ahsan (@SaleyhaAhsan) July 20, 2015
Greetings from the Theatre and Recovery team. Just so you know it's 2 on a Monday morning. #iminworkjeremy pic.twitter.com/1jxJ0DbnpL
— Mickey Yauski (@Spidermandy) July 20, 2015
#ImInWorkJeremy. 0055. Just finished emergency. 2 consultants, 1 on call and 1 worried about his patient. Vocation? pic.twitter.com/VCtUv8xMvR
— Mike Henley (@trentconsultant) July 20, 2015
6 hours to go! #ImInWorkJeremy pic.twitter.com/eUxBtQjvmX
— Dr Gareth Roberts (@DoctorBigG) July 20, 2015
Hunt attempted to get involved with the hashtag, first by calling for a “modern contract” for doctors and then by tweeting a picture of himself with medics at University College Hospital. But the tweet backfired after users pointed out a board listing the patients on the ward in the background. It also emerged the photo was taken on a Friday rather than on a weekend.
