Petition calling for health secretary’s resignation exceeds 200 000 supporters

Doctors have expressed their increasing anger with the health secretary for England, Jeremy Hunt, through social media and an online petition. Thousands of doctors have expressed their support for a campaign which calls for a vote of no confidence in the health secretary, either by signing an online petition or tweeting their concerns.

The online petition (https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/104334) was launched by Ash Sadighi, a consultant in internal medicine, on the Parliament.uk website in response to Hunt’s announcement that he was prepared to impose a new consultant contract. The new contract, Hunt said in a speech on 16 July, would include the removal of consultants’ right to opt out of non-emergency work outside normal working hours.1

In his petition Sadighi said that Hunt had “alienated the entire workforce of the NHS by threatening to impose a harsh contract and conditions …