Junior doctors have just voted overwhelmingly in support of strike action in response to the new Department of Health contract.  98% have advocated for proper strike action, and 99% have said they would support everything up to it. And yet, in an interview with BBC News, Jeremy Hunt still places the blame firmly on a militant BMA being unwilling to negotiate over terms:

This is the result of a very regrettable  campaign of misinformation by the BMA over the Summer that’s tried to scare doctors about these proposals, suggesting that they’re going to have big pay cuts. I would urge every doctor before they participate in this strike to actually look at the government’s offer: we are bringing down weekend rates in order to improve cover at weekends, but we’re increasing basic pay by around 11%.

Source: BBC News

In a web worthy of the most hardened conspiracy theorist, the Right Honourable MP has positioned himself as the spider, trying to hold the strands together against the onslaught of brainwashed BMA flies flying towards it. “Don’t worry, I won’t suck the life out of the health service,” he seems to say, “I won’t be cutting your pay, I will just be readjusting how it is delivered into a format that I find preferable. Oh, the professionals don’t agree? They’ve found that none of what I am saying adds up? They must be out to get me.”

Jeremy Hunt has also rejected any notion of conciliatory talks through the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS),  saying that his ‘door has been open for talks since June, and the BMA have refused to engage at any stage with talks’. He tweeted recently that any pre-conditions that the BMA are referring to are completely fabricated, even having the gall to post a link to the letters to the Junior Doctor’s Committee (JDC) Chair in which the preconditions are described.

Read my letter to BMA confirming there aren’t & never have been preconditions to #juniorcontract negotiations: https://t.co/XDNwK23BRQ

— Jeremy Hunt (@Jeremy_Hunt) November 17, 2015

Back on the 4th November, the JDC Chair Dr Johann Malawana released a statement saying that:

To get back around the negotiating table we have repeatedly called on the government to remove the threat of imposition and provide us with concrete assurances on a safe and fair contract. Today’s announcement falls short on both counts as, once again, the headlines do not match up to reality.

Crucially, the proposals fail to deliver safeguards with real teeth to protect safe working patterns and, with it, patient and doctor safety. Furthermore, the proposals on pay, not for the first time, appear to be misleading. The increase in basic pay would be offset by changes to pay for unsocial hours – devaluing the vital work junior doctors do at evenings and weekends. While, in the short-term, existing junior doctors may have their pay protected, protections will only exist for a limited time.

Source: BMA

So, the JDC was willing to negotiate.

So, there were preconditions to the contract negotiations, including an imposition of the terms regarding pay, which I might again emphasise are laid out in the letters Mr Hunt posted online.

So, despite Mr Hunt’s insistences, there would be substantial effects on doctor’s pay.

So, it’s not all about pay in the first place, there are genuine concerns about the risks placed on patient safety by the new contract.

And he wonders why doctors have exactly zero trust in him?

I would prefer to give him the benefit of the doubt on this one. All of the evidence points towards a campaign of misinformation, not on the part of the JDC, but rather orchestrated by Jeremy Hunt and the Department of Health. This would all seem to indicate he is being wilfully dishonest; however, I suggest another option.

He genuinely believes everything he is saying, and he genuinely believes that the backlash given to him at every turn over his policies from people in the know is simply because he is poor old Jeremy Hunt, just trying to make the world better. In simpler terms, he is delusional, to the point where it is interfering with his job. He is caught up in the collective Tory delusion that by implementing private sector business practice everywhere, the country can be saved- even when it is demonstrably not working, it is just an element of militant doctors or left-wing malcontents trying to stir up trouble.

I prefer to believe this, because I’d rather he was delusional and incompetent, a man with fingers in his ears, than  to think for a second any of this was done intentionally. Either way, it is completely and utterly apparent that he is not fit for office- just remember that the petition to call a a vote of no confidence in Mr Hunt has, at current, over 225,000 signatures, more than twice the 100,000 for a debate to be held (which consisted of debating the ‘underlying issue in the petition which was started’, i.e. the contract conditions of NHS staff).

In response to Jeremy Hunt rejecting talks through ACAS, the BMA have released the following statement:

It is clear that trust has broken down between junior doctors and the government, which is why we are offering conciliatory talks via ACAS. If it is true that Jeremy Hunt has refused our offer, all he is doing is entrenching himself even further.

This is not just one or two junior doctors who believe that his proposals are unsafe for patients and unfair for doctors. The fact that today’s ballot result is near unanimous should be a wake-up call for the government. Instead of continuing to ignore the views of tens of thousands of junior doctors who, in the health secretary’s own words, are the backbone of the NHS, he should, if he really wants to avoid industrial action, accept the BMA’s offer of conciliatory talks.

Source: BMA

One can only hope that even the upper echelons of the Tory party must eventually take note of the catastrophic failures in the Department of Health, and reshuffle accordingly.

But it’s entirely possible that they are all delusional too.