The junior doctors' dispute, on BBC with Peter Levy
On BBC News as the junior doctors' contract dispute escalated, defending them on pay, safety and the strikes to come: the segment that convinced me broadcast alone was not enough.
On the day
This was not a comfortable interview. It was the depth of the junior doctors’ contract dispute, and Peter Levy pressed hard: on pay, on the so-called weekend effect, on whether doctors like me were really just trying to avoid working evenings and weekends. I answered as honestly as I could in the time I had, a few minutes of live television to make a complicated argument land.
That was the moment I understood something about news that has shaped everything I have done in media since: it is transient. A segment airs once and is gone, however much care went into landing the point. If I wanted the public to actually understand what was happening to the NHS and to the doctors delivering it, waiting to be invited onto a bulletin was never going to be enough. I needed a channel I controlled, where I could return to a point, build on it, and speak to people directly rather than through a presenter’s next question. That is why I founded WatMed Media: to stop waiting for the airwaves and start broadcasting on the platforms people were already on.
It is the same instinct that has me experimenting with AI channels now. Media keeps changing where the public actually is; the job has always been to go and meet them there, not wait for them to come to you.
What I said
The presenter’s questions are paraphrased. My answers are my own words from the recording, lightly edited for reading clarity, except where a cue says paraphrased; every turn has been checked against the recording.
Peter Levy paraphrased, from 0:00
He introduced me on camera: a junior doctor who also teaches medical undergraduates at Lincoln County Hospital. He asked me how much junior doctors earn in a year.
Dr Kishan Rees paraphrased, from 0:08
Junior doctors’ pay ranges hugely by experience, from around £23,000 to £24,000 starting out to £60,000 to £70,000 the day before becoming a consultant.
Peter Levy paraphrased, from 0:20
The government said they had addressed most of my concerns about the new contract; what was the one concern I thought they hadn’t?
Dr Kishan Rees from the recording, 0:28
Well, I think patient safety has got to be at the top of the agenda. Guardians have been mentioned, these are trust-appointed positions that would safeguard junior doctors’ working hours, but they don’t seem as robust as the severe financial penalties in place at the moment.
Peter Levy paraphrased, from 0:47
But, he pointed out, junior doctors were getting an 11 per cent pay increase, and the government said 75 per cent of doctors would be better off under the new contract. Wasn’t the real issue, over Kish’s interjection, that junior doctors simply didn’t want to work evenings and weekends?
Dr Kishan Rees from the recording, 1:04
Definitely not, absolutely not. We work evenings, we work weekends.
Peter Levy paraphrased, from 1:10
He had seen a junior doctor interviewed on television earlier that day, who said he wanted to be at home with his wife on a Saturday, but they have to work.
Dr Kishan Rees from the recording, 1:14
Well, I think if you get a Tuesday and a Wednesday off, that’s absolutely fine, and I think many doctors think that as well. I think some of the concerns are that there are junior doctors working twelve days in a row. If you’re working twelve days in a row, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to want to see your wife, girlfriend, boyfriend, whatever it may be, in the week.
Peter Levy paraphrased, from 1:36
The government, he said, had a mandate for NHS care at weekends after the election; it was generally accepted, wasn’t it, that hospitals weren’t as safe at weekends as during the week? Weren’t junior doctors, by striking, trying to stop that changing?
Dr Kishan Rees from the recording, 1:55
I would contest that point, that it’s generally accepted, in terms of the safety aspects, that weekend. I think a lot of people would contest that. Some of the figures in those studies are questionable, and I think we’ll see more of that coming out in the days and weeks to come.
Peter Levy paraphrased, from 2:14
A poll out that day, an Ipsos MORI poll, showed two-thirds of the public supporting the junior doctors. Would that support hold, he asked, once the second and third strikes came, the second in February and the third due to affect A&E for the first time? Wouldn’t public sympathy ebb away?
Dr Kishan Rees from the recording, 2:29
Quite possibly, and yes, that is certainly a concern, and I wouldn’t blame the public if public sympathy did ebb away, especially with the threat of emergency care being withdrawn. I don’t know how I could handle that myself. I’m in education, so if I don’t work, students don’t get taught, there’s no impact on patient safety. But if I was in that position, it would be very, very difficult to do. I personally hope that it will get called off, as the first strike was.
Peter Levy paraphrased, from 3:00
The health secretary, he said, had called the strike completely unnecessary. Did I agree with him?
Dr Kishan Rees from the recording, 3:04
Well, the health secretary wouldn’t be interviewed last night.
Peter Levy paraphrased, from 3:06
That wasn’t the question, he said: did I agree it was completely unnecessary?
Dr Kishan Rees from the recording, 3:10
Well, I disagree with him then, in that respect.
Broadcast by the BBC, January 2016 (exact date unconfirmed); clip from the WatMed Media archive, my own upload. The BBC retains the rights in the broadcast. This page carries my own contributions with the presenter’s questions paraphrased, credits the programme, and I will amend or remove on request.