In an announcement yesterday, Conservative Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said he would impose an inferior contract on 55,000 junior doctors in England after it failed in reaching an agreement with the British Medical Association (BMA).

Addressing Parliament, Hunt said that the negotiator of the government Sir David Dalton had reached to an agreement on 90% of issues with the BMA, but so far no contract agreement had been finalized by a deadline of the earlier evening.

Hunt added that Dalton and National Health Service (NHS) England’s chief executive, Simon Steven, had urged that Hunt should now take steps to bring the dispute to an end, which means to unilaterally impose a bond that is regressive if we consider pay and shift patterns of junior doctors and harmful for patient care. The contract will be enforced from August 1.

The unprecedented and authoritarian move taken by the government has indicated towards a new stage in the efforts of the ruling elite to get rid of the NHS.

The announcement has been made a day after junior doctors struck across the nation, as a result of which hospitals had to cancel nearly 3,000 non-urgent operations. Considering the growing public back for the doctors, which reflects vast opposition to the current destruction of public health care, the government and the media sections reported that the support of doctors for the struggle was flagging.

Hunt said only 43% of doctors took part in the strike, and that it was ‘unnecessary’ and resulted in ‘terrible suffering’. He refused mentioned that his figure involved doctors conducting emergency care, who were excused from the action. It was a fact that the employer, NHS England, wanted to make clear.