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Hardline leftwing leaders at the British Medical Association (BMA) have pushed the professional body for doctors from being primarily concerned with medicine to being “structured to union activity.” The revelation comes as junior doctors prepare to cause further misery for NHS patients for four days in April over pay following a 72 hour walkout earlier this month in what Tories believe is an assault on Rishi Sunak’s government.<\/p>\n
In the Medics Money podcast, Robert Laurenson, a trainee GP who is co-chair of the BMA\u2019s Junior Doctors Committee, said that “there\u2019s been a tremendous shift inside the BMA that has only happened recently” towards more hard-line activism.<\/p>\n
Speaking on the podcast aimed at junior doctors, he added that it was his plan to “see the BMA being structured more towards union activity.”<\/p>\n
Laurenson also explained that they were plotting long term disruption, beyond their current dispute, saying “I would like to see doctors being prepared to organise in the long term more to fight a plethora of issues” and that “that we need to persevere and persist and keep contributing through all sorts of ways over an extended period of time.”<\/p>\n
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Lurenson said: “There are so many other issues and problems with our profession, and I think it\u2019s important people realise actually that these kind of changes don\u2019t just happen overnight.<\/p>\n
“And that we need to persevere and persist and keep contributing through all sorts of ways over an extended period of time.”<\/p>\n
The remarks have provoked fury among the Conservatives close to Mr Sunak who see this as politicisation of the profession at the potential risk.<\/p>\n
A Conservative source said: \u201cSadly it seems that junior doctors seem to be more interested in playing politics than in trying to resolve their current dispute and getting back to caring for patients.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhilst they are focused on politics, the government is working hard to fix problems with our NHS by reducing waiting lists, improving A&E performance and making it easier to see a GP.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Junior doctors are planning a four day strike in April as their pay dispute continues with the Government.<\/p>\n
The 96-hour stoppage will start just after the Easter bank holiday weekend and continue from 06.59 on Tuesday April 11 to 06.59 on Saturday April 15.<\/p>\n
It will affect every NHS hospital in England.<\/p>\n
The BMA has blamed ministers for the strike and insisting that they had not put forward \u201cany credible offer\u201d in response to their demand for a 35 percent pay rise for trainee doctors in England.<\/p>\n