The Labour-controlled Welsh government has launched a bold and pointedly political recruitment campaign to attract junior doctors across the border from England.
Just weeks before planned strike action in England over a hugely controversial new contract, the Welsh health minister, Mark Drakeford, has released a recruitment video claiming his devolved government had a “partnership approach” to negotiations.
Drakeford is emphasising that the NHS was “born in Wales” and argues that the service there is all about getting care to the people who most need it – not to those who can afford to pay or know the right people.
For several years, David Cameron has heavily criticised the way the devolved government in Cardiff has run the health service and it was a key battleground during the election campaign.
The problems faced by the Tories in Westminster and health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, in particular over the junior doctors’ contract are seen as an opportunity for the Welsh government as it bids to recruit more young health professionals – and to hit back over its record.
Junior doctors in England, 20,000 of whom staged a protest march in London last month, are furious that the proposed contract will extend the hours in any week for which they are paid basic rates of pay – from the current finish time of 7pm on weekdays to 10pm – and, crucially, will also include Saturday until teatime for the first time.
They are worried that safeguards to stop hospitals forcing them to work dangerously long hours, and the current banding system that governs how much they are paid, will both disappear. Hunt has insisted that no junior doctor will lose out financially under the new system.
In the video, Drakeford extols the opportunities in Wales for young doctors who can choose to work in its great cities, in its villages or in challenging areas such as the valleys of south Wales. He talks of the great sport and music on offer and the proximity to the mountains and sea.
He speaks in some detail about what he claims is a different relationship between politicians and health professionals and patients. He says: “I’m talking to you at a time when there is controversy about the way that contracts for doctors in training will be run in the future. All I want to say to you about that is that the approach we take in Wales is always one of discussion, negotiation and agreement.
“We have a partnership approach with all those people who work within the NHS in Wales. When there are difficult issues that have to be addressed we do it by getting around the table together, by putting the issue in the middle of the table and making sure we solve that issue in a way that is common to us all. That is the way we do things in Wales. That’s the way we are going to approach our part of the contract negotiations. We won’t be changing anything in Wales until we know we have a proper way ahead.
“Coming to Wales would mean being in a country where the initials NHS still really matter. We have a national service here in Wales, a planned service, an integrated service, a service where what drives what you get is the level of your clinical need, not the accident of where you were born, not the accident of who you know, not the accident of how well placed you are to advance your own individual case or cause.”
The video is part of a campaign called Make Your Future Part of Our Future. Explaining the campaign, Drakeford said: “The NHS was born in Wales. Founded by [the Ebbw Vale MP and health minister] Aneurin Bevan, the NHS was born out of the ideal that good healthcare should be available to all, regardless of wealth.
“Wales has a strong tradition of working in partnership with our staff and their representatives. Junior doctors from any part of the UK willing to come to work in Wales will find a very warm welcome.”
