{"id":37339,"date":"2016-09-02T14:58:23","date_gmt":"2016-09-02T13:58:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/?p=37339"},"modified":"2016-09-02T15:01:07","modified_gmt":"2016-09-02T14:01:07","slug":"patients-need-to-have-a-say-on-the-junior-doctors-contract-dispute","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2016\/09\/02\/patients-need-to-have-a-say-on-the-junior-doctors-contract-dispute\/","title":{"rendered":"Patients need to have a say on the junior doctor’s contract dispute"},"content":{"rendered":"

An open letter to Jeremy Hunt and The BMA<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

We are patients who have had life-changing illnesses, injuries, or disabilities. We have worked for years to get patients and carers to be more involved in healthcare policy and practise at a local and national level. We do not “represent” anybody. This statement is a collation of individual views and does not represent the wider patient and public voice.<\/p>\n

We are not on anyone’s “side” in the junior doctor’s dispute and feel that neither of you\u2014Jeremy Hunt or\u00a0the BMA\u2014do, can, or should “represent” the voice of patients. Yet both sides claim to have patient concerns at the heart of their thinking.<\/p>\n

Some of us were for the previous strike action. Some of us were against. But now, none of us support the current decision to take\u00a0strike action. We feel patients may be harmed. Previously, patients were reluctant to put their heads above the parapet<\/a>. Now, on social media at least, voices against the strike are more frequent.<\/p>\n

We want you both to get back to the table. However\u2014and this is paramount\u2014we also want patients to be included in a way that may help get us through the current impasse.<\/p>\n

Patient and public involvement is now part of healthcare orthodoxy. There are admirable examples where it has been done well. But there are vast areas where it does not happen. This is one of them.<\/p>\n

An article seven months ago in the Health Service Journal<\/a> is still valid and sets out the basis for the role patients could have played, and could play in helping to solve the dispute.<\/p>\n

If this dispute is strictly about pay, then fine. The two of you should be able to sort it. But if it is about pay AND conditions, then it is about patient safety. And if this is about patient safety (and both sides say it is), then enough is enough\u2014patients need to have a say.<\/p>\n

We believe, had patients been involved earlier, the content of the new contract might have been different and the process might have gone better\u2014minds would have been able to focus truly on what matters to patients; what we mean by “safety” and “seven day working” could have been explored; an honest debate could have been had about resource constraints and possible trade offs.<\/p>\n

Without patients, the dispute has become binary and confrontational. When elephants fight, the grass gets trampled. We need a new model of healthcare decision making that is about real dialogue. The current dispute is a crisis. But it may also be an opportunity to model a new vision for healthcare and for patients to help\u2014this impacts on all our lives. Nothing about us without us. Are you listening?<\/p>\n

Paul Buchanan
\nAlison Cameron
\nLaura Cleverly
\nLynne Craven
\nRoz Davies
\nSibylle Erdmann
\nTrevor Fernandes
\nDavid Festenstein
\nDavid Gilbert
\nAnya de Iongh
\nKaren Maskell
\nChristine Morgan
\nPatrick Ojeer
\nTessa Richards
\nMichael Seres
\nSue Sibbald
\nRosamund Snow
\nDominic Stenning<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An open letter to Jeremy Hunt and The BMA We are patients who have had life-changing illnesses, injuries, or disabilities. We have worked for years to get patients and carers […]<\/p>\n

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