Medical leaders have made an 11th-hour plea to David Cameron to start fresh talks to avoid all-out junior doctors strikes this week.
Bosses of 14 of Britain’s royal colleges of medicine have written to the prime minister, urging him to end the “damaging standoff” between Jeremy Hunt and junior doctors’ representatives in an attempt to ensure the walkouts planned for Tuesday and Wednesday do not happen.
Their unprecedented intervention comes on the eve of the first all-out withdrawals of medical cover in the NHS’s 68-year history. Signatories include leaders of organisations representing the professional interests of GPs, general hospital doctors, anaesthetists, radiologists, paediatricians, obstetricians and gynaecologists.
They tell Cameron that the increasingly bitter dispute over contracts poses “a significant threat to our whole healthcare system” by demoralising junior doctors, who are the workhorses of NHS care in hospitals.
Their letter says: “You have spoken many times about your commitment to the NHS. In our view, as leaders of the medical profession, the ongoing impasse in the dispute between government and junior doctors poses a significant threat to our whole healthcare system by demoralising a group of staff on whom the future of the NHS depends.
“At this 11th hour, we call upon you to intervene, bring both parties back to the negotiating table, end this damaging standoff, and initiate an honest debate about the serious difficulties facing UK health services.”
Among the signatories are Prof Neena Modi, president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health; Dr Liam Brennan, president of the Royal College of Anaesthetists; Prof Jane Dacre, president of the Royal College of Physicians London and Dr David Richmond, president of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists.
They were joined by Dr Maureen Baker, chair of the Royal College of GPs; Dr Giles Maskell, president of the Royal College of Radiologists and Dr Anna Batchelor, dean of the Faculty of Intensive Care Medicine.
The Royal College of Surgeons of England and the Royal College of Psychiatrists are the only major royal colleges not to be involved in the initiative.
