Doctors: Caring or greedy?
The background
The first planned doctors’ strike in the UK for forty years has caused considerable controversy. The British Medical Association (BMA) announced the “day of action” for 21 June 2012, after a ballot of members. Doctors plan to strike over proposed changes to their pension schemes, which will involve extending the age of retirement and increasing contributions.
Doctors risk destroying patient trust
“Doctors have a professional obligation to put the interests of their patients first. Yet on Thursday they are intending to put these last, as GP appointments and non-urgent operations are cancelled,” wrote Melanie Phillips in The Daily Mail. According to Phillips, the planned strike is yet another example of the “culture of self-interest” overtaking the public sector. And doctors risk losing their bond of trust with patients: “What a tragedy it would be if, through this deeply unjustifiable strike, the public became as disillusioned and cynical about the medical profession as it is about the rest of Britain’s all-too self-serving public servants,” Phillips said.
Doctors enjoy excellent pensions
“The typical family doctor retiring at 60 receives an annual pension of £46,000; a full-time consultant will receive £43,000 and a lump sum of £135,000,” said a Telegraph editorial. The large amounts they receive are therefore unlikely to stir much sympathy for the strike: “There will be limited public sympathy for well-paid professionals with such excellent pension entitlement acting in this way.”
Victoria Coren: Government ‘raiding’ doctor pensions
“The government should leave their pensions alone. It’s a raid, not a saving, and these are people who train for seven years to spend their lives in the valley of the shadow of death,” wrote Victoria Coren in The Guardian. Coren urged readers not to fall for government “propaganda” that doctors are somehow greedy for wanting to protect their pensions: “Somehow, the moral is that doctors and teachers and train drivers are ‘greedy’, simply for wanting to live as they did before.”
BMA must hold firm despite backlash
“The BMA has always been aware of the PR difficulties in taking a stand over pensions. But for rank-and-file GPs, the sheer vitriol of the criticism has come as a shock – particularly for those who have been directly challenged by patients,” said GP magazine Pulse. However, the BMA must now hold its nerve in the face of the backlash: “The protest on 21 June is more of a test for the BMA than the Government, to see if it has the grassroots muscle and political stomach for a fight.”
