I’ll take the Junior Doctor fight to Westminster

As someone who is proud to describe themselves as a Junior Doctor in our NHS I have seen first-hand the effect this Government’s policies are having on patients, Nurses and Doctors. On a daily basis I see Hospital’s stretched to breaking point, and I know how furious my colleagues have been about the way Jeremy Hunt has attempted to portray our current dispute.

I also know that the pressure on the NHS will only increase if many more Junior Doctors decide to leave the UK and practice overseas. That’s why I told the Guardian that I didn’t want Doctors to leave but to stay and fight.

As a Registrar in both General Practice and Emergency Medicine, I know how crucial the fight for the NHS is, and I think there is more that I can do. I am going to be putting my name forward to be Labour’s candidate in the Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough by-election.  As the party of the NHS it is surprising that not a single Labour MP was a Doctor. If I am elected I will take the fight of all those who love our NHS, and Junior Doctors particularly, to Westminster and send a loud & clear message to Mr Hunt and the Government that we will not allow our NHS to be mismanaged like this.

Social care that keeps people well in their own homes is being cut. GP surgeries are closing due to under investment and a recruitment crisis. Pharmacies are being cut. A&E waiting times are going up and up. Mental Health service funding and resourcing is inadequate leading to patients being sent 200 miles away from their homes! At the very time we need to boost the morale of NHS staff, Mr Hunt has decided to undermine them and impose a contract that is not safe for patients nor fair for medical staff. The applications for medical staff to leave the UK is up 1000% because of this man’s failure. We are in real danger that we could lose our NHS, the precious legacy our parents and grandparents fought and sacrificed so much to give us.

As a Labour member and councillor, I am proud that Labour founded the NHS and champions it’s cause, but the fight for its future is here and now. I trained in Sheffield, live just 10 miles down the road and practiced there as a Doctor.  It is precisely the kind of community that is at the epicentre of the care storm. Welfare cuts, care service cuts and escalating need, an industrial past with all the health problems that brings, and a fierce sense of pride in their Community. There couldn’t be a better place to resume the fight for our NHS, and I hope that members there will send a message to Mr Hunt that this is our NHS and there is a better way to manage it.

Stephen Hitchin is a Labour Party Councillor in Chesterfield, a GP and A&E Registrar in Chesterfield, and a Captain in Royal Army Medical Corps reserves in Sheffield.