BMA press releases archive

BMA reassures patients that all urgent care will be provided on day of action

(issued Tuesday 19 Jun 2012)

BMA reassures patients that all urgent care will be provided on day of action

For immediate release: Tuesday 19 June 2012

Patient safety will be the absolute priority of doctors on Thursday’s day of industrial action – the first by doctors in four decades – the BMA has reiterated today (Tuesday 19 June 2012). While the BMA has worked to ensure that all emergency and urgent care will be provided, planning with managers indicates that at least four in every five NHS employers in secondary care across the UK have postponed some non-urgent cases.

Figures for the proportion of GP practices taking part in the action are still being estimated.

Dr Hamish Meldrum, Chairman of Council at the BMA, said: “Doctors helped negotiate a major reform of their pension scheme in 2008 that made it sustainable for the future. This included staff, not taxpayers, taking on responsibility for any increased costs due to improving life expectancy. The scheme currently brings in £2 billion more than it pays out. Doctors are now being asked to work even longer, up to 68 years of age, and contribute even more, meaning doctors have to pay up to twice as much as civil servants on the same pay for the same pension. Doctors accept the need to play their part in improving public finances. We don’t expect better pensions or preferential treatment, just fair treatment.

“We are not expecting members of the public to support the action, but we hope they can understand why doctors have been driven to this point – for the first time in 40 years.

“Patient safety is our absolute priority. We have been clear throughout that any emergency care – or other care urgently needed by patients – will be provided. We are undertaking this action with extreme reluctance.”

The BMA has worked closely with NHS managers to ensure they were able to give patients as much notice as possible of any impact for them. Advertisements explaining the action to the public will also be published in over 80 regional newspapers across the UK tomorrow.

Because the action is not a strike as the term is normally understood – with doctors attending their usual places of work to provide urgent and emergency care – it will never be possible to provide exact figures on the numbers of doctors taking part in the action. However, as part of its commitment to reviewing the impact of the action, the BMA will provide figures that are as detailed as possible on and after the day.

Ends

Notes to editors:
View a briefing paper on the dispute and the action:

http://bma.org.uk/~/media/Files/PDFs/Working%20for%20change/Negotiating%20for%20the%20profession/pensionsmediabriefingjune2012.ashx