Professor Robert Winston, a doctor and scientist who has worked in medicine since 1970 and has had roles on This Morning and The One Show, offered his opinion on strike action
Professor Robert Winston – who has been an expert on This Morning and The One Show – has quit the British Medical Association (BMA).
The scientist and TV presenter, 84, described planned strike action by resident doctors as “highly dangerous”. The band of medics – previously known as junior doctors – voted overwhelmingly in favour of the action, which Prof Winston feels will put the most vulnerable at risk.
Prof Winston, who became a household name through his documentaries on child development, said he resigned from the BMA on Thursday, having been a member of the BMA since he qualified as a doctor more than 60 years ago. The father of three, born in London, said: “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.”
Prof Winston, who presented 17 series of pioneering documentary Child of Our Time on the BBC, urged the union to reconsider, saying it is “important that doctors consider their own responsibility much more seriously”. He also told The Times the walkout could cause “long-term damage” to people’s faith in doctors.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting has also encouraged the doctors to make a U-turn, telling the Mirror the move would put into jeopardy work Labour has done to cut NHS waiting lists since the party’s return to power. Writing for us, he said: “This recovery is fragile. That’s why I’m urging the BMA to think again about launching a strike that would jeopardise the real progress that patients are seeing.”
Speaking in The Commons this week, Mr Streeting added: “We all know that the NHS is still hanging by a thread.” The walkout, in a dispute over pay, is supposed to happen for five consecutive days from Friday July 25 at 7am. It has concerned Prof Winston, a Labour peer, so much he has scrapped his time with the BMA, the trade union created in 1832 in London. Its stated aim has always been to “to promote the medical and allied sciences, and to maintain the honour and interests of the medical profession”.
Prof Winston, an IVF pioneer, worked in the industry for several decades after joining Hammersmith Hospital as a registrar in 1970. He also took on media work in the 1990s and has been a regular face on our TV screens since, with stints as an expert doctor on This Morning on ITV and The One Show on the BBC.
The Mirror has approached BMA for a comment.