Jeremy Hunt’s tactics in junior doctors’ dispute attacked by senior Tory

A senior Conservative MP has attacked Jeremy Hunt’s “entirely unreasonable” tactics in pursuit of an “unachievable” seven-day NHS, claiming he misrepresented evidence to win public support in his long-running dispute with junior doctors.

Revealing the depths of the Tory divide on the NHS, Dr Sarah Wollaston, the chair of the Commons health select committee, dismissed Hunt’s argument that more doctors working weekends would reduce hospital fatalities.

Writing for the Guardian, Wollaston warns that the health secretary’s decision to impose the unpopular new contract on England’s 45,000 junior doctors will not solve the problem of the higher death rates among patients.

The MP for Totnes said Hunt should instead have concentrated on ensuring more senior doctors spend more time in hospital at the weekend, that more nurses are on duty and that diagnostic services such as CT scans are more readily available.

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http://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/apr/03/jeremy-hunt-tactics-junior-doctors-dispute-sarah-wollaston