Doctors Condemn Hunt In No Confidence Vote

The British Medical Association has passed a motion of no confidence in Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt.

The vote by the organisation, which represents more than 150,000 doctors and medical students, was held at the union's annual conference in Edinburgh.

Presenting the motion, Dr Jacky Davis said that Mr Hunt was leading the Government's "ideological attack on the service and on staff".

It was passed with an "overwhelming majority".

Dr Davis said the NHS had been "wrecked" by the Government, adding: "Leading the attack (on the health service) has been the Health Secretary. His main purpose seems to be criticising the service and undermining the staff.

"He is at the forefront of a new political blame game, blaming frontline NHS staff for the predictable chaos resulting from his Government's reforms and cuts."

He added: "The Health Secretary is ready to blame anything and anyone rather than put the blame where it really belongs - with his Government and their cuts, closures, rationing and the debacle of NHS 111 and most of all of course the infamous mess of the Health and Social Care Act.

"We are watching a good service brought to its knees by vandals in Westminster."

Jeremy Hunt at University College Hospital last week

Dr Mark Porter, the chairman of the council at the BMA, accused the coalition of going "out of its way to act against the interests of patients".

The vote came as senior doctors were expected to call for NHS patients to pay top-up fees for some services, arguing that the state can no longer provide everything for free.

They are expected to demand that a list of "core" services is drawn up to tell patients what they can and cannot expect from the health service.

Gordon Matthews, from the BMA consultants' committee, will say the public must be told explicitly "what can be funded from central taxation and what cannot".

"A publicly funded and free-at-the-point-of-delivery NHS cannot afford all available diagnostics and treatments," he is expected to tell the conference.

"Everyone recognises that we're in times of austerity, there isn't a lot of money around, while public expectations have gone up and up, medical treatments have become more expensive and there isn't an easy way to square the circle."

A key theme of the conference will be the pressure faced by NHS staff, as the BMA warns that relentless change is making it impossible for doctors to make improvements in care.

A survey found around two thirds - 65% - of medics feel less empowered because of red tape and inadequate staffing levels following changes imposed by the coalition.

Ministers claimed the Health and Social Care Act would put doctors in the driving seat but only two months after its implementation, the poll reveals disquiet about its effects.

Many doctors questioned by the BMA said they felt "hindered" from making improvements in patient services because of the new rules.

Of the 1,000 doctors surveyed, some 81% described pressure at work as "high" and GPs were the group reporting the highest level of pressure.

Dr Porter said: "It is a grave cause for concern that those who wanted to make improvements to patient services feel there are barriers prohibiting that.

"It is particularly worrying that the pressures so many doctors are experiencing on a daily basis appear to be getting worse.

"The Government wants to give doctors more control so they can work effectively for their patients, yet they often find this impossible in the face of an unprecedented funding squeeze, inadequate staffing levels and rising patient demand."

Dr Porter warned ministers not to blame parts of the NHS and to work more with staff to resolve the current problems.

"Doctors should be encouraged and supported, not burnt out and drowning in red tape," he said.

"If the NHS is to survive another 65 years there must be a clear recognition that we are reaching boiling point with patient demand."

His comments come after a row over an A&E crisis, which the Government has partly blamed on GPs failing to do enough out-of-hours work.

Health minister Dr Dan Poulter said: "Doctors are working extremely hard and continue to provide a high quality of care in the face of rising healthcare demands."

He defended the coalition's health policies, pointing out that it had invested in 6,000 more doctors, £140m in new technology and training and given Health Education England a £5bn budget.

The NHS is ring-fenced from the Government's drastic cuts, with the coalition committed to delivering a real terms increase in health spending.

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