Shropshire MP says junior doctors 'hijacked' his attempts to survey people on strike action

Ludlow's Conservative MP, and former Health Minister Philip Dunne, launched the survey last month, ahead of this week's unprecedented six days of industrial action.

British Medical Association (BMA) junior doctors walked out at 7am today, and are not due to return to work until 7am on Tuesday, making the strike the longest consecutive walk-out in NHS history.

Local health bosses have warned that the action is likely to have a significant impact on services and patients.

Nearly 300 inpatient and outpatient appointments were cancelled at Shrewsbury & Telford Hospital NHS Trust during the three-day walkout from December 20 to 23.

At the centre of the dispute is junior doctors' calls for a 35 per cent pay rise – they argue it is to make up for the 26.2 per cent fall in the value of their pay since 2008.

They have been offered a three per cent rise on top of the average 8.8 per cent increase they were given in the summer.

Mr Dunne, who is standing down at the next general election, had launched a survey to gauge public feelings over the row.

His efforts have been supported by the current Wolverhampton South MP, Stuart Anderson, who will be moving to try and win Mr Dunne's seat at the next election.

But Mr Dunne says supporters of the strike appear to have hijacked the survey, which was shared on a doctors community forum on Reddit – with users given two Ludlow addresses to use for their responses to give the impression they were local residents.

The MP said 20 per cent of the survey’s responses had used one of the addresses provided on the Reddit forum, with 54 per cent of all survey responses coming from either the addresses provided on Reddit or outside the Ludlow Constituency.

Mr Dunne said the efforts were hindering his efforts to find out what voters in his constituency believe about the issue.

He said: "I am disappointed there has been this clumsy attempt by some living outside of the Ludlow Constituency who support strike action to influence the outcome of our survey.

"Both Stuart Anderson and I have a genuine interest in the views of South Shropshire residents on this issue, and had hoped our survey would reveal what local patients think about the way in which the BMA and the government have approached these negotiations.

"The only reason to seek to hijack our survey would be to influence the result. But we will not be deterred from seeking the opinions of South Shropshire residents. Our survey remains open, so I encourage anyone in South Shropshire who has a view on this issue to go to www.tellphilip.com to let us know your views.”

Mr Anderson said: "This is the busiest time of the year for our NHS. Local health leaders have warned of the impact on patients and there has already been a large increase in waiting times attributed to strikes across the NHS. It makes a mockery of doctors’ claims they are striking to ‘Save the NHS’. I genuinely want to know what people think of this vital public service being held to ransom in this way. Please let me know what you think by completing my survey at: https://southshropshire.stuartanderson.org.uk/."