Last year during the height of the Junior Doctors contract dispute with NHS employers and Jeremy Hunt, the Health Secretary, I was approached by Asantha Jayaweera (@AJtheSandman), a junior doctor to help bring a bit of humour to a serious stand-off between the government and the NHS. Given my connections with the Care Quality Commission, I wasn't able to draw any overtly political messages supporting the actions of the Junior Doctors and instead, Asantha and myself focused on two of the key moments in the dispute. Asantha posted these on various social media forums and we got quite a lot of hits and positive feedback.
The first cartoon highlights the monumental task that was facing Dr Johann Malawana (@johannmalawana), the then chair of the Junior Doctors Committee (JDC) in convincing junior doctors to vote for and accept the renegotiated contract. They didn't and Dr Malawana stepped down as the JDC Chair shortly afterwards.
The second cartoon focused on the Justice for Health team (@Justice4Health_) on the eve of their court date to challenge the imposition of the contract on doctors - the contract included the shift in terms and conditions to accommodate a 'seven day' NHS. Justice for Health lost the case although aspects of the judgement led to a moral victory of sorts.
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