The British Medical Association has stopped using the term ‘junior doctor’ after members said it was ‘demeaning’ to junior doctors.
The union said the infantilizing phrase has been used to ‘devalue’ and ‘reduce’ their members’ contribution to the NHS and suppress their wages.
It is used formally to refer to any physician below the rank of consultant – ranging from those fresh out of medical school to those with ten years of experience.
Representatives at the annual BMA conference in Liverpool this week passed a motion in support of abolishing the word ‘junior’.
But critics said the doctors were “hypersensitive” and should instead put their energy into improving their skills and earning a higher title.
The union said the infantilizing phrase has been used to ‘devalue’ and ‘reduce’ their members’ contribution to the NHS and suppress their wages. Pictured, young doctors on the picket line outside Leicester Royal Infirmary
It comes as many of England’s 75,000 junior doctors are preparing to strike for five days later this month to pursue a 35 percent pay rise that will kick inflation.
The vote required the union to stop using the term “in all forms of communication” and replace it with just “doctor.”
The motion read: “This assembly firmly believes that the term ‘junior doctor’ is both demeaning and misleading to the general public, who may not fully understand that these labels refer to qualified professionals.”
It will likely lead to the BMA’s militant ‘junior doctor committee’, which has coordinated a series of devastating strikes, being renamed.
Dr. Emma Runswick, Deputy Chairman of the Board of BMA, said: ‘There is nothing ‘junior’ about a junior doctor and never has been.
Health bosses were forced to cancel 108,602 appointments and surgeries when junior doctors withdrew care for three days in June, including from cancer wards and ER. It brought the total number of postponements due to strike action by doctors in training, nurses and physiotherapists since December to 651,232
‘Junior’ doctors have years of intensive training and sometimes more than a decade of experience in the departments behind us.
“We perform operations, lead medical teams, save lives.
Time and time again the public has been misled by this demeaning term, a prime example of how our work is devalued and minimized.
“Today’s conference made it clear that the entire profession would no longer put up with this.
“This represents a major change, not only for how we are viewed externally, but also for many structures of the BMA and beyond.
“We will need time to work out how to implement it.
“But it is clear that doctors will no longer tolerate titles that do not reflect our expertise.”
Members opposed to the motion said it remains important to differentiate interns from their senior colleagues and said the BMA has more important things to spend its money on than renaming medics.
Frank Furedi, professor of sociology at the University of Kent, said the doctors’ sensibilities regarding their title are “exaggerated”.
He said, “There is a constant effort to rewrite language based on sensibilities. Anything normal is considered offensive these days.
“The doctors should use their mental energy to improve their medical skills and advance to a higher position, instead of worrying about their names.
“For patients, it’s helpful to be able to tell a doctor-in-training from their more experienced colleagues, as they should be able to tell a doctor from a nurse.”
Junior doctors will strike for five days from July 13, in the longest strike in NHS history. They will refuse to provide any care, including emergency and cancer departments.
The consultants will then strike on July 20 and 21, although they will offer ‘Christmas Day’ coverage, meaning they will only provide urgent and urgent care.
Waiting lists in England stand at a record 7.4 million, with more than 650,000 appointments and surgeries canceled since December due to union action