Junior Doctors Plotted To Drag Out Spat: Leak

Junior doctors plotted to drag out the dispute over weekend pay and tie the Department of Health "in knots" for up to 18 months, leaked messages reveal.

The WhatsApp messages reveal the tactics employed by medics during the protracted dispute with the Government, which led to hundreds of thousands of cancelled operations and appointments.

They also suggest that despite the junior doctors' insistence they were only worried about patients' safety, they were actually almost wholly concerned with cuts to weekend pay.

Junior Doctors' Committee chairman Johann Malawana urged the group in messages not to get too "concerned" in talks with the conciliatory body trying to resolve the row.

But he said they should "play the political game of always looking reasonable" and described the all-out strike as a "vanity event for juniors".

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The messages between members of the British Medical Association junior doctors' committee have been obtained by the Health Service Journal.

They also expose divisions between the junior doctors' arm of the BMA and top leaders as they thrashed out the best strategy to deal with the dispute with the Government over the new contract.

Sky's health correspondent Thomas Moore said: "The junior doctors were generally perceived to have had the moral high ground during the protracted dispute, but these messages suggest that perhaps they weren’t quite that saintly.

"Drawing out the dispute would have been even more damaging to the NHS. And it seems the BMA weren’t being totally honest in their public statements.

"But that’s the rough and tumble of any industrial dispute and it’s now history - there is a negotiated deal on the table.

"It may lead some patients to question whether the doctors really were on their side, as they claimed."

A deal was agreed with the Government this month, but junior doctors have yet to vote on the proposals.

The agreement came after junior doctors staged the first all-out strike in the history of the NHS, which included withdrawing emergency care.

Jonathan Isaby, chief executive of the TaxPayers' Alliance, said: "Patients will be appalled to discover that far from being concerned for their safety, the BMA has been playing a 'political game' to maximise disruption in the NHS."

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt insisted the changes to the contracts, which saw an overall pay rise but a reduction in pay for some weekend hours, were necessary to gear the NHS up for seven-day working.

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Junior doctors always maintained the new contracts put patient health at risk and insisted their protest was not about the money.

However, in a message ex-committee chairwoman and executive member Kitty Mohan said: "It (Saturday pay) is the only real red line. It's the thing 99% of juniors told us they were upset about in August."

Dr Malawana said: "No combination or scenario in my mind gives us a contract juniors would buy that gives you Saturday as plane (sic) time."

On 15 December, Dr Malawana proposed "a strategy that tied the DH up in knots for the next 16-18 months".

He also sent messages saying the Government should be put in a position where it was forced to impose the contract on junior doctors.

It was only at the end of April that Dr Malawana considered putting Saturday pay back on the table in discussions with the Government.

A BMA spokeswoman said: "These conversations go back over six months and reflect the anger and frustration felt by junior doctors across the country due to the Government's refusal to listen to their concerns.

"Private discussions should not be mistaken for the agreed strategy of the BMA junior doctors' committee, which was communicated publicly."