Heidi Alexander MP, Labour’s Shadow Health Secretary, speaking in the House of Commons this afternoon in response to Jeremy Hunt’s decision to impose a new junior doctors’ contract, said:

This whole dispute could have been handled so differently. 

The Health Secretary’s failure to listen to junior doctors, his deeply dubious misrepresentation of research about care at weekends and his desire to make these contract negotiations into a symbolic fight for delivery of seven-day day services has led to a situation which has been unprecedented in my lifetime.

Everyone, including the BMA, agrees with the need to reform the current contract.

But hardly anyone thinks the need to do that is so urgent that it justifies imposition, and all the chaos that will bring.

One of the hospital chief executives who the Secretary of State claims is supporting him has tweeted this morning: “I have supported the view that the offer made is reasonable… I have not supported contract imposition”.

Can the Health Secretary not see that imposing a new contract which doesn’t enjoy the confidence of junior doctors will destroy morale which is already at rock bottom?

Does he not realise that this decision could lead to a protracted period of industrial action which will be distressing for everyone – patients, doctors, everyone who works in or depends upon the NHS?

A poll earlier this week found that nearly 90 per cent of junior doctors are prepared to leave the NHS if a contract is imposed.

The Health Secretary needs to stop behaving like a recruiting agent for Australian hospitals and start acting like the Secretary of State for our NHS.

The Health Secretary has been keen to present a new junior doctor contract as the key which unlocks the delivery of 7 day services. This is a massive oversimplification and he knows it.

Whilst research shows a higher mortality rate amongst patients admitted to hospital at the weekend, there is absolutely no evidence which shows a lack of junior doctors specifically causes this.

What we heard from the Secretary of State today could amount to the biggest gamble with patient safety this House has ever seen.

He has failed to win the trust of the very people who keep our hospitals running and he has failed to convince the public of his grounds for change.

Imposing a contract is a sign of failure. It’s about time the Secretary of State realised that.”