The chairman of the British Medical Association has accused the British government of alienating the UK medical profession with the introduction of health service rationing and reforms.
Addressing more than 600 doctors gathered in Belfast's Waterfront Hall for the BMA's annual conference, Dr Ian Bogle said morale had never been so low. He criticised the pace of NHS reforms and lack of funding, and said unnecessary and meaningless targets were creating intolerable working conditions. "Many doctors feel increasingly unable to cope with the demands made of them in their professional lives," Dr Bogle said.
"They are being pressurised to work at ever-increasing intensity, often to meet imposed and irrelevant targets. Morale has never been so low." The BMA conference is being held in Northern Ireland for the first time in 37 years. Delegates yesterday overwhelmingly rejected calls for patients to be charged for consulting their GP and using NHS services.
A motion recommending user fees to prevent the health service collapsing under financial demands was rejected, to cheers and claps.
Delegates also debated the issues of euthanasia, health service funding and reforms.
Future funding of the NHS was one of the first motions to be debated at the conference, which will decide on medical policies for the first year of the new millennium.
Calls for the British government to admit that certain treatments, such as the multiple sclerosis drug Beta Interferon and the anti-impotence drug Viagra, are subject to rationing were also debated.
However, a planned vote of no confidence in the government was cancelled.
Today looks set to be one of the most emotionally-charged days of the four-day conference, when delegates will debate motions on junior doctors' pay and working conditions and morale generally in the profession.