Latest news with #doctorsstrikes
Telegraph
5 days ago
- Health
- Telegraph
The militant strike ringleader who now controls the BMA
The militant Corbynista who helped inspire the first doctors' strikes in 40 years is now in charge of the British Medical Association (BMA). Dr Thomas Dolphin, a consultant anaesthetist in London, beat four other candidates to become chairman of the BMA council last month and will now lead it for at least three years in what is already looking like a painful tenure for Wes Streeting. Ironically, had things gone the way Dr Dolphin had planned, he would be in the House of Commons alongside the Health Secretary. But the Labour Party did not shortlist him to run as an MP at last year's general election, and now he faces them instead as agitator-in-chief. The 47-year-old has a base salary in excess of £126,000 and has spent the past 20 years building on his political ambitions, playing a pivotal role in turning the union into the militant group of strikers that it is today. He is part of a group of doctors who have 'ideologically captured' the BMA, according to insiders, and been labelled by critics as 'Trots' – a reference to the hard-Left ideals of Leon Trotsky, the Marxist revolutionary. Last year, Dr Dolphin was responsible for putting forward a motion – that was passed without debate – to reject the independent Cass review into children's transgender healthcare, which had called on the NHS to stop prescribing puberty blockers to children. More than 1,000 union members signed an open letter in revolt, and around 200 medics quit as a result, insiders claim. An activist during the days of Jeremy Corbyn, he campaigned alongside John McDonnell, the former shadow chancellor and socialist, and has been the election agent for Dawn Butler, the London MP for Brent East, in the last three elections. His rise to the top of the BMA has coincided with increasing levels of political activism and dissonance among members. He has been a critic of the Government and an outspoken member of the union since the days of Tony Blair – when the BMA says doctors were last paid fairly. In 2007, a young Dr Dolphin championed the BMA's calls for Patricia Hewitt, the former health secretary, to resign over a chaotic online application system for junior doctors that resulted in medics not being offered job interviews. He rose to become chairman of the union's junior doctors' committee and in 2012, supported doctors' first industrial action since the 1970s over pension reforms. He has been a hardline union activist and advocate of striking as a means to achieve results ever since. He made media appearances backing a series of junior doctor walkouts in 2016, despite by this point being a consultant and member of the BMA's consultant committee and council. In 2023, he fronted the senior doctors' own campaign for pay rises, claiming consultants had seen real-terms cuts to pay of 35 per cent since 2010, as they timed strikes to coincide with the junior doctors' walkouts and the Conservative Party conference. Although now he says, the union is 'non-partisan' and he is in a 'non-partisan role'. 'As in, I don't have any political affiliation as chair of council,' he told the Guardian last week. He also warned that the 29 per cent rise the junior doctors – now called resident doctors – are demanding is 'non-negotiable' and could mean strikes go on for years. Mr Streeting has also said that any increase on the 5.4 per cent pay award for 2025-26 was 'off the table', leaving both parties at an impasse. The Health Secretary said it was 'completely unreasonable' that the doctors would strike having received a 28.9 per cent salary uplift in three years. He is set to meet with the BMA's resident doctors' committee this week to see if there is a way to 'avert' the five-day walkout, which begins at 7am on 25 July. The rise of Dr Dolphin and like-minded political activists has coincided with the union increasingly alienating itself from the public and other doctors. Recent polling shows just one in five Britons strongly back the resident doctors' strikes, while senior medics have criticised the walkouts and even quit the union as a result. Its annual general meeting has attracted criticism for its increasing focus on political issues such as Palestine and Israel, its rejection of the Supreme Court's ruling on what a biological woman is and how single-sex care should be delivered, as well as the anti-Cass motion put forward by Dr Dolphin. The new chairman has also already written to Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary, to criticise the Government's plans to 'restore control to our borders' outlined in the Immigration White Paper. He said plans to increase the years that people, including doctors, must spend in the UK to obtain settlement status from five to 10 years would 'create unnecessary stress and uncertainty', and that the BMA was also 'deeply concerned' about introducing 'stricter English language requirements for adult dependants including spouses'. On taking up the role of chairman last month, he told the BMA's 190,000 members: 'The fight to restore doctors' pay and pensions continues, with colleagues across the country furious that the promised 'journey' towards pay restoration that we were promised has already come to a grinding halt.' With consultants also holding an 'indicative ballot' on industrial action, the upcoming strikes look set to be just the first under Dr Dolphin's reign.
The Sun
10-07-2025
- Health
- The Sun
NHS waiting lists fall to lowest for two years but doctors' strikes risk halting progress
NHS waiting lists have fallen to the lowest for two years but progress is at risk from doctors' strikes. The backlog was down to 7.36million in May, from a peak of 7.77m in 2023. 2 Hospitals had their busiest May on record with 75,000 treatments, 80,000 scans and 78,000 A&E visits every day. Health chiefs warn staff's efforts could go to waste if the British Medical Association's five-day strike goes ahead at the end of the month. Waiting lists were the highest in history during the last run of strikes and are expected to rise again if walkouts drag on. Health Secretary Wes Streeting said: 'Our NHS is finally moving in the right direction but this recovery is only just beginning and it is fragile. 'I am once again urging the BMA to abandon their unreasonable rush to strike.' Prof Meghana Pandit, of NHS England, added: 'It would be hugely disappointing if this progress were to stall this summer due to industrial action.' An official survey also showed patient satisfaction with GP surgeries has increased compared to last year. But cancer waiting times appeared to get worse in May compared to April. Tim Gardner, from the Health Foundation think-tank, said: 'Last week the government's 10-year Health Plan outlined an ambitious vision to make the NHS fit for the future. 'The statistics published today highlight the scale of the challenge in making that vision a reality.' Junior doctors branded 'irresponsible and dangerous' as they stage 11th strike with 5-day walkout 2
Times
10-07-2025
- Health
- Times
NHS waiting list falls but strikes will wreck it, Wes Streeting warns
Wes Streeting has warned that doctors' strikes 'ruin lives' and could lead to job cuts, as he urged the British Medical Association (BMA) to abandon its five-day walkout later this month. The health secretary said public support for the BMA has 'collapsed' and that strikes would jeopardise the NHS's 'fragile' recovery. Monthly figures published on Thursday showed that the NHS waiting list has fallen to 7.36 million, the lowest level for more than two years, down by 30,000 in a month and 260,000 since Labour took office. But all this progress could be undone by the five-day strike from resident doctors — formerly known as junior doctors — starting on July 25, when about 200,000 operations and appointments are at risk of cancellation.
Daily Mail
09-07-2025
- Politics
- Daily Mail
Labour threw cash at striking junior doctors. Now, they have come back for more and are threatening to plunge the NHS into chaos... we know who really runs the country: TOM HARRIS
We all saw it coming, so why didn't Labour? When your only tactic for ending the doctors' strikes that had plagued the last few months of the last Conservative government was to stuff the medics' mouths with gold, obviously they were going to come back for more.
