YP Letters: Sir Bernard Ingham has his finger firmly on the pulse of NHS ailments

I HAVE long admired columnist Sir Bernard Ingham and his column “Many questions face NHS but who has the answers?” (The Yorkshire Post, February 10) grappled with the complex problem of the junior doctors strike.

The two most succinct remarks he made were “Incidentally, does anybody know the ins and outs of this dispute?” and “We are entitled to ask whether the BMA, now leading strikes, has ever heard of the Hippocratic Oath.”

I am in my 70s and have jokingly told colleagues over the years ‘do not be ill between 4pm Friday and 9am Monday; your chances of death are high’.

At last a government has the backbone to provide what the public wants, comprehensive health care 24/7. On this occasion the NHS staff are on the losing side. In modern life there is seven-day-a-week demand for most things, and this will continue to be so.

I worked most of my life in the service sector, running my own business with staff, always open six days a week and sometimes seven. Occasionally younger staff would complain about always working weekends. In a pleasant way I explained to them that “we” worked in the service sector and if they had a problem then I advised them to look for jobs in industry or commerce as those were traditionally five midweek days.

The pay rates for my staff were the same Monday to Saturday inclusive. They all worked Saturday and had a day off midweek. Saturday-only staff also helped my sales team as it was the busiest day.

Prior to the 2015 election, 
the Labour leader Ed Miliband let it be known he wanted to politicise the NHS, and was rightly castigated by David Cameron. The Labour party was rejected by the public and lost badly.

I strongly suspect that the socialist movement among the majority of public sector workers, and particularly in the BMA, is determined to reject all offers made by the Conservative Government to achieve medical anarchy in the UK.

Last summer, Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt attempted to start the process set out in the Conservative manifesto, but the BMA moved straight in to strike mode and the inexperienced junior doctors followed them like sheep.

What has happened to vocation? The BMA is a national disgrace and need to be seriously brought to book via legislation. How much longer do patients have to die unnecessarily at weekends?