There is certainly something very wrong in the state of England at the moment, and the junior doctors dispute with Health Minister Jeremy Hunt epitomises it. When a government minister resorts to misusing statistics and lies on such a grand scale it should inevitably lead to resignation, but Hunt – like Iain Duncan Smith – seems to get away with it, supported by the BBC (over-anxious about its licence) and the rest of the media, whose proprietors, like the government itself, are rubbing their hands at the thoughts of the rich pickings from private health care as they gradually privatise the NHS.
But while I despair at the actions of the Tory government (and Labour don’t have much of a record at the moment, though perhaps things may change) I have been truly heartened at the response of the junior doctors, who almost to a man and woman have taken a stand against the imposition of a new contract. The strength of their opposition isn’t because of the money or even working hours – most already work unsocial hours and there were many placards to show that colleagues were unable to attend because they were at work on a Saturday – but because doctors working in the NHS want to see it kept as a service dedicated to the public good rather than working for private profit.
Of course money and working hours are important. Already many junior doctors live highly disrupted lives with overnight and weekend working on a regular basis – because the NHS is already a 24/7 service, particularly for the junior doctors. For those whose partners are also working in the NHS it can be something of a nightmare, especially for those who have children.
Junior doctors are not really ‘junior’ and may remain junior doctors for many years after completing their initial medical training, working their way to becoming consultants. It’s a demeaning term, perhaps deliberately so, and one I think they and the BMA should refuse. They are doctors, hospital doctors rather than GPs.
Supporting the junior doctors at the protest consultants, GPs, nurses and other health professionals, all of whom realise that the future of our NHS is at stake. They see the injustice and the lies and realise that many or most of them are going to face similar demands from our corrupt government if it manages to get its way with the junior doctors.
Photographically it was a fairly straightforward event to cover, with most of those taking part being keen to be photographed, and was distinguished by the range and invention of the hand-made placards and posters that some of the doctors and others had brought, as well as those produced by the campaign with details of colleagues supporting but unable to attend. As usual when working in crowds, the 16-35mm was invaluable, and used for all of the pictures above, with the 28.0-200mm being mainly used where I wanted to isolate a single figure – as in the image below of one of the leaders of the protest holding a poster ‘Not Fair, Not Safe. #saveourNHS’, taken at 1/250 f6.3 ISO 1600 at 75mm with the Nikon D810 in DX mode – so a 112mm equivalent.
I focused on her eyes, and tried to be sure that Jeremy Hunt at to top left with a speech bubble saying ‘Lies’ was still clear. It worked better than I expected at f6.3, perhaps with a little help in post-processing, adding a little local contrast, clarity and sharpening. It has to be basically there when you take the picture, but a little dodging and burning etc can help. Though Reuters wouldn’t approve!
More pictures at Junior Doctors protest to save the NHS.
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