TV professor Robert Winston QUITS top medical union over ‘dangerous' doctor strikes & says ‘this isn't the time'
DOC SHOCK TV professor Robert Winston QUITS top medical union over 'dangerous' doctor strikes & says 'this isn't the time'
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A RENOWNED doctor has resigned from a top medical union after slamming "highly dangerous" planned strikes by medics.
Professor Lord Robert Winston - who pioneered IVF treatments in the UK - has quit after more than 60 years as a member of the British Medical Association (BMA), ahead of strike action later this month.
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The professor, 84, who came to fame through his TV documentaries on child development, believes "now isn't the time" for strikes as they risk "long-term damage" to the public's faith in doctors.
Earlier this week, the BMA announced that resident doctors (previously known as junior doctors) in England would walk out for five straight days from 7am on July 25 over disputes with pay.
Professor Winston told The Times: "I've paid my membership for a long time. I feel very strongly that this isn't the time to be striking.
"I think that the country is really struggling in all sorts of ways, people are struggling in all sorts of ways. Strike action completely ignores the vulnerability of people in front of you."
The professor, who has been a member of the union ever since he qualified as a doctor, quit the BMA on Thursday but has urged the union to reconsider its decision.
He stressed that it's "important that doctors consider their own responsibility much more seriously".
Professor Winston was made a life peer in 1995 and has presented a number of major scientific BBC series including Child of Our Time and The Human Body.
He hopes that the BMA will abandon its strike plans and work with ministers to negotiate solutions with the government and bring about improvements to "appalling" working conditions and night shifts.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting called for resident doctors to "abandon their unreasonable rush to strike" and said that NHS recovery is "fragile".
Mr Streeting told the Commons on Thursday: "We have put the NHS on the road to recovery, but we all know that the NHS is still hanging by a thread, and that the BMA is threatening to pull it."
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