Jonathan, a liver doctor, working in a London hospital, will not be joining his fellow junior doctors on strike.
“I have thought really hard about this and feel strongly the government is doing the wrong thing, but I don’t believe that withholding emergency care is the right thing to do.
“Essentially, this is a battle for public opinion. The actual rights and wrongs of it are almost irrelevant. My opinion is: the government is trying to force an unfair and potentially unsafe contract on its workforce.
“But I think we will lose public opinion rapidly because the government will spin that people have died as a consequence of the strike. And my conscience is telling me punishing our patients by striking is not the right thing to do. I don’t want to give Jeremy Hunt any more ammunition to question our professionalism.
“I don’t really want to have a difficult conversation with my colleagues explaining my rationale because some of them will disagree and may feel that I am sort of betraying the profession. But I feel that withholding emergency care is the wrong thing to do.
“The cover being provided means there is no risk to patients, though they are being inconvenienced by the elective procedures in clinics being cancelled. But the government will portray that we are putting patients at risk and that we are being negligent
“I think this stands a greater chance of losing public opinion and I don’t think it is going to achieve its stated goal.”
