Junior Doctor loses High Court battle with Jeremy Hunt

Junior Doctors have lost a high court case against Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt that challenged the legality of the new controversial contract set to be introduced next week.

Statements put forward by five junior doctors said that the new contract was "unsafe and unsustainable" and Hunt is exceeding his powers to impose it.

They also said Hunt had acted in breach of the requirements of transparency, certainty and clarity and that he had acted irrationally.

Hunt’s presentative in court Gavin Sheldon QC defended the health secretary saying: “The secretary of state has not gone outside the scope of his powers.”

All arguments have been rejected by Justice Green and instead found that Hunt was encouraging employers to introduce the new contract rather than compelling them to do so.

A Department of Health spokeswoman said: “We welcome this clear decision by the judge that the secretary of state acted entirely lawfully. We must now move on from this dispute to the crucial job of making sure patients get the same high standards of urgent and emergency care every day of the week, which involves more than the junior doctors’ contract. We urge the BMA to remove all threat of further industrial action so we can work constructively with junior doctors to address their wider concerns and better recognise their vital importance to the NHS.”

The law suit came after strike action failed to force Hunt to change the terms of the contract. The ongoing dispute has led to six separate strikes including the first all-out stoppage in the history of the NHS.

The recent scheduling of further strike action has been called by the British Medical Association, much to its members frustration, due to risks to patient safety.

The court case was crowdfunded raising £300,000 from 10,000 donors, most of them junior doctors themselves.

Despite their loss, the junior doctor claimed the judgement as a victory saying that contrary to Hunt’s previous statements the contract was not being imposed and so the doctors are not legally compelled to sign the new contract.

“This allows the employees and employers at a national level to negotiate and agree terms which are genuinely in the interests of patients and staff,” one of the five doctors Dr Amar Mashru told The Guardian.

As such trusts could retain existing contracts until terms and conditions were agreed upon rather than introducing the new contracts next week as Hunt intended.

As it stands however, NHS trusts across England will start phasing out the contract from next week in a process that will take about 18 months to put all 54,000 doctors below the level of consultant on to the altered terms and conditions.